Hello, everyone!
Here’s a short snippet from a conversation I had earlier today with someone on the topic of resistance. It occurred to me that this could be relevant to others as well, and so I thought I’d send it out. Be well!
In peace,
David
Good day, my friend!
It sounds to me like you are dealing with garden variety conditioned resistance here. But just to make sure let me ask you, do you in your heart truly want to do spiritual practice, and this practice? Do you truly want to do the work? If the honest answer is no, then it would be better if you didn’t set yourself up for disappointment and self-criticism. Don’t do it! If you do truly want to do spiritual practice, however, then you will need to get past the resistance.
In general the way to do that is to become aware of the conversation in conditioned mind that is talking you out of what you want to do (it’s always a conversation in conditioned mind, of course), and learn to catch it in the act. If you can see the conditioned thoughts that are leading to the conditioned behavior (in this case avoiding what you want to do), then there is an opening to do something different. And in order to get past the resistance you will need to do something different (in this case to come to group or meditation or whatever you decide to do); it will need to be ratified, we might say, in the actual content of your life. It’s not just enough to think it, in other words: in order to be free of the conditioned process of resistance (which I would imagine is operating in other areas of your life, not just in relationship to spiritual practice) you have to do what conditioned mind says you can’t do, and refuse to do what it says you have to do. If you can act independently of the resistance then you’ll be free of it.
Gassho,
David