Acceptance = Listening

I have found it challenging to accept everything in my life, as Eckhart Tolle recommends in "The Power of Now."

Sometimes the best I can do is grit my teeth and grudgingly endure a situation.

In Jean Klein's writing I came across a concept that felt more supportive to me.  Klein says that accepting a situation means listening to it.

Klein goes on to say that listening, in this sense, is not something that you do with just your ears.  Rather, you listen with your whole being.

You patiently listen, without an agenda or a deadline, and the situation gradually reveals itself to you.

Perhaps the situation simply evaporates.

Or, if it continues, you slowly come to see it in a larger context. 

Whatever happens, there is likely to be some sort of movement.  You probably won't feel as stuck as you previously did. 

Listening feels to me like an easier recommendation to follow than accepting.  

  

Situations

The ego needs situations in order to survive.

A situation can be good or bad.  It doesn't matter, as long as it's a situation.

Without a situation to latch onto, the ego will die.

If there is one thing the ego does not want to do, it's to die!

It will fight tooth and nail to survive.  

So, if one problem is resolved, my ego will create another problem. 

The thing is, though, that as long as I identify exclusively with my ego (my personality), I am shut off from my heart (Consciousness).    

I encountered this idea in "The Ease of Being" by Jean Klein.  

Since then I've been noticing situations in my life and acknowledging them as situations.  Just being aware that they may be playing this role -- that is, feeding my ego -- seems helpful in detaching from them to some extent.  I am just that little bit more aware that I don't need them.

Snow Globe

Teachers of Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality) say that I am not who I think I am.

Judy is an appearance that pops up within Consciousness.  

Everything else that makes up my world -- other people, situations, etc. -- also are appearances within Consciousness.  

At first it was quite something for me to wrap my mind around that idea.  

Then an image came to me that helped me to visualize the concept.

I thought of a snow globe. 

The people in my life and I are like the reindeer, fir trees, etc., in the globe.  The snow flakes that fly around when the globe is shaken represent the dramas that my ego gets caught up in.

Consciousness is something like the kid watching the snow flakes doing their thing in the globe.

Well, that's a very crude analogy -- and not a really accurate one either.

Consciousness and the appearance that arises within it actually are One.  There are not two things.  

Nonetheless, for an extreme beginner on the path towards Non-Duality, the snow globe image feels supportive.  When I'm in the middle of a "problem," it helps me to imagine Consciousness watching what's going on in my snow globe world.  It helps me to feel just a little more detached from the situation.