Where's the Problem?

Here's a quote from the New Testament:
Mark, Chapter 7, verses 17, 15, and 16:


Then he called the crowd to him, again, and said to them,

"Hear me, all of you, and understand.

There is nothing, outside of a person, that
entering into that person,
can defile them.

But the things that come out
of a person,
these are what defile us all.

If anyone has ears to hear,
let him hear."



This is the glory and
the work
of life.

Someone comes along and says:

"You are a jerk."

So be it. That does not defile us.

We react
in the good old reactionary way,
and think, "What an awful person."
That defiles us.

We say back something mean or snippy to them.
That defiles us.

We gossip about them
to others.
That defiles us.


Or, to raise the stakes,
our sweet friend is tired,
or dealing with too many things,
or going into new and scary territory,
or feels they are being treated in ways
that before were really awful,
or they actually are being treated
not so wonderfully by wonderful us,

and in that trapped and awful feeling
they start
screaming at you.

So be it.
Welcome to What Is.
Welcome to the chance to Love What Is.

And their screaming doesn't defile us.

Our fury at them for being furious defiles us.

Our yelling back, or preaching or demanding they
instantly be "good," defiles us.

Our lack of curiosity and love about what's
underneath the big response defiles us.

Our condemning and/ or gossiping about them
defiles us.


There are lots of more ways we can
react
in the reactionary
mode
and all
these ways defile us.


The Work of Byron Katie
is of great use in
making the distinction between
the outer act and our inner suffering
from the outer act.

And so is this:
Coming back to the present,
being in our skeleton and gravity
and in air
and our breathing,
and noticing:
I am alive, right now.

And thinking:
how can I be of use
and happy,
right now?

Simple?

Yes.

Hard to pull off?

Yes.

Life changing?

Yes.

And today’s job/ task/ game/ delight/ wake up call:
find what in you is reactionary.
Watch all the times you are “upset”
and see how it isn’t about the other person,
it’s about your

identification
with your reaction

to the other person.


Be kind to yourself.

Be amused.

Be awake.


It’s lots of fun.
Seen as a game,
all the “challenges” of other people “not treating us well"
becomes the delight
of discovering
how we defile ourselves,

and, on the other side of this:
how sweet and
peaceful and
free
it feels
when we don’t go the reactionary route
but just
("just!")
settle into loving What Is.