Lately there has been a huge influx of posts on social media and different online publications that start with the words “in these uncertain times” and its a great point to reflect on, can time really be uncertain?
I mean it looks that way to most, because there is a new set of circumstances going on around us called the coronavirus, and with it, things look different to how they looked before, but does the feeling of uncertainty really come from the coronavirus, or does it come from the mind and the transient nature of thought?
For sure it looks stressful to many, things change around us, people have more or less to cope with, things are different, its not so easy to go shopping or meet friends.
The idea that time is uncertain comes from the misunderstanding that most of humanity innocently suffer with, that life is somehow an outward journey of collecting things:
- Status
- Finances
- Relationships
- Good businesses
- Career
- and on and on…
Destination Happiness.
Destination happiness! it almost looks to most that if you just get the perfect balance of things, circumstances and status that you will somehow arrive at destination complete, feel a sense of well-being, a sense of achievement of happiness or whatever else it is that it looks like you might get when you accumulate the right collection of things.
The thing is, life doesn’t work that way, there is no destination, and no amount of accumulation of those things will create happiness, peace and contentment, security or peace of mind, because those things are only available right now, in the moment, beyond the idea that there is a destination to life. Those experience all come when we are free of our thinking about what we think we need to do it in order to get them.
Once you realise that the road is the goal, and that you are always on the road NOT to reach a goal but to enjoy it’s beauty and wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple.
The Inner GPS
Everyone has a guidance system for life, somewhat similar to a GPS, it comes with directions, and pointers and it works, if you follow it. So why do most people not follow it, and get lost?
If the noise of our personal mind gets quiet enough, we can always hear our guidance system, like the time when you knew it was not a good idea to get into that relationship, or start that business, but you did, you knew all along, and at the end you said something along the lines of “I knew all along that was not right for me” everyone has had this experience at least once if not more.
The problem is not that you are bad, broken or have something wrong, it’s just that that system does not come with instructions, for most people the noise of personal thinking is louder than the GPS and they follow that instead.
Spending years in personal development, talking therapies trying to fix the illusion of low self worth, or lack of confidence – what cannot be fixed, because there is nothing wrong in the first place. It is just the noise if your personal thinking.
So how does this relate to current times?
If you think back to how much time you have spent in your life thinking things will go wrong, or a certain way that you were certain of, and how many times they turned out differently – pretty much every time right? then it makes sense that, life always works out ok, and we always think it wont.
All suffering is created in the mind, via the power of thought, not by uncertain times, the quieter your mind, the more likely you will hear the GPS pointing you where to go next, this will work regardless of circumstances, this has always worked and will always continue to work, because it doesn’t rely on you, it’s just quite simply how the system works.
So, were not in uncertain times, life has always been uncertain, and we have lived with the illusion of certainty, things are just happening in the world that are new, the cool thing about that is, anything is possible, we all have infinite potential.