“If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.” — Edmund Burke
Let’s take the above quote one step further, if you can be without consciousness you may not even comprehend that you are a non-functioning being without knowing who you are. Look around you, thousands upon thousands of individuals believe they are doing just fine, while functioning blindly in their own existence. You might ask then what describes this existence without consciousness? I have listened to a plethora of interpretations while experiencing first hand those persons whom react to their lives, rather than responding with awareness to a presence in conscious thought.
Unfortunately, what also exists are those attached to their victimhood which gives impetus to their suffering. Without the life long story of the victim’s unfortunate circumstances playing over and over again in their minds, they wouldn’t know who they were nor how to respond to their life’s journey, situation or essence. Putting it another way Thich Nhat Hanh expresses the following, “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
There are instances that one needs to know intrinsically . . . on when to let go of an individual or set of circumstances, that are well beyond any hope of change. For each of us that threshold is a variable, and the assessment is always a personal or professional choice. Letting go is not giving up, giving in or giving out . . . on the contrary, it is knowing yourself and situation so well that you are left with no other option. In the last analysis Don Miguel Ruiz chooses these words, “Nobody abuses us more than we abuse ourselves.”
Make no mistake this is not an easy exercise, but necessary. In some measures, it can be life threatening and you must make a choice of survival or continue down the road to physical, psychological or emotional ruin. But you must recognize the difference through aligning your consciousness to your essence and well being. Ultimately, it comes down to a basic tenet as suggested by Thomas Troward, “We cannot really think in one way and act in another.” Acting consciously in alignment with who you are, may ultimately. . . save your life. JLR