Nobody enters in our life coincidentally nor do events happen by accident. Every event we experience and every person we meet has intentionally been put in our path for telling us something. They serve to increase our awareness and raise our level of consciousness.
We see around that many people complain about their current situation. They say: “Why is this happening to me? I don’t deserve this.” Or “why does he/she behave badly despite my kindness?” This complaints make them upset and angry. Often we find ourselves in this mood also. When events happen to us, firstly we attempt to blame the opposite side. Because “I” wants to protect itself, it keeps away from facing up with realities. Anyway, everything happens when we say “I”. Here, the “I” word should be understood as “the ego” (the false self), not the real self. As we say “I” at every turn, we mention this false self which veils the real self. The ego is controlled by the mind. The mind marks people with adjectives like good/bad or fair/unfair. Unless we strengthen and control our minds, we become slaves of our minds. The ego doesn’t want to be defeated; therefore it keeps us away from facing with the reality during an event. Its sole desire is to keep us at the defense of itself.
Everything begins when we confuse pure and impure with one another. We assume the ego and the pure consciousness to be the same thing, but this is a big illusion. Pure means pure consciousness- real self and impure means that thought patterns fed by our ego. As we continue to ask “why does this happen to me?”, similar events will continue to happen to us again and again. Whenever we achieve to take lessons from our experiences and whenever we realize for what purpose we experience these events, then we’ll be freed from this vicious cycle of events.
We are the source of both our problems and their solutions. So, we can face the realities and focus on the solutions instead of creating new problems. Who knows what will happen, when we try to look events from a wide perspective instead of taking from a narrow outlook due to our ego. Maybe our nature, our world can change! Before blaming the opposite side, we should return to our real self and inspect what the event tells us. Otherwise, we believe that life always plots against us. And we see ourselves as a victim. That’s why we continue to suffer. But, if we realize that “I” am the cause of everything, then sad situations are understood as life examinations that we need to overcome. Only then, our heart will be released from hatred. We’ll forgive and become full of compassion.
According to Lao Tzu, our troubles are caused by our attempts to satisfy our egos. Only when we accept the world as ourselves, the world can peacefully reside in us.
Namaste.
by Simge Ural