In yesterday’s SSG meeting, as well as in the newsletter, I mentioned the importance of being kind, and giving the benefit of the doubt to those who upset you in some way.
That’s because any negative reaction shows an ego distortion.
Yes, some people may wish us ill. But if we see their reactions with absolute clarity, through our True Self and not the ego, we will meet their behavior with understanding, and not with some distorted ego reaction.
That’s because then we would see this from a higher perspective, described in my YouTube video here.
So know that if your reaction is negative, the ego is always involved.
The ego regularly and frequently interprets situations incorrectly, followed by the negative reaction, which causes negativity to spread in this world. This is what maintains wars and disagreements in this physical dimension.
That’s the truth – we are all contributing to wars and other evils of this world, if we spread negativity; because degrees of negativity don’t matter – negativity is negativity.
How the ego works
The ego interprets everything in terms of a potential threat. It first assesses everything if it poses any risk to you, and then – if it’s of benefit to you. And it’s very fast to interpret any benign thing as some sort of danger to you, when it’s nothing of the kind.
This makes me remember a friend of mine who nearly got us into an accident. As a police officer, he’s always on the lookout for something negative in people. And we took a rickshaw with a cheerful rickshaw driver in Sri Lanka, who happened to be a weed smoker (you can almost always tell).
He was not under the influence at the time of driving, but just one look at him made my friend perceive this person negatively. So my police officer friend found a way to provoke him (I don’t even remember how anymore), and they got into a verbal disagreement.
The poor guy, in order to verbally fight back, stopped even looking at the road ahead whilst driving, which put us all in a dangerous situation. I felt like a hostage there, with no way to escape.
Thankfully, the drive was short, and we got to the destination unhurt.
That was the last time I travelled with this person in a rickshaw, and it taught me a great lesson of how the ego-driven person through his or her judgments based on past experiences can create misery not only to themselves but to all around them, and can even put all into risky situations.
It’s like fabricating something out of pure air – the poor driver did nothing to deserve the verbal attack; but the ego can be so twisted that it will find reasons to condemn a person.
The triggered generation
This is very visible today with the people who get triggered for nothing. I remember taking part in one spiritual group, and trying to help out a woman that was complaining about things changing for the worse after spiritual awakening.
I explained that this is what tends to happen in the process of awakening – that if we cannot mentally detach from the things of the world, they are sometimes taken away from us, so that we learn their impermanence.
This happened to me too, when I had to say goodbye to my husband.
My explanation of why this was happening to her really triggered her, and, of course, she made sure I felt how upset she was with me through her charged comment.
So you see how a sensitive ego interprets everything? Even if you try to help and wish them well, the ego-driven people may completely misunderstand your intention and interpret your wish to be of aid totally negatively!
How to escape this ego trick
So be always, always on guard against this, as the ego has many tricks ups its sleeve. But if you are aware that any irritation, anger or upset of yours shows that you misunderstood something, this can loosen the egoic grip on you.
Once you catch yourself feeling upset or feeling any other negative emotion because of some person or situation, be willing to see the situation again, without any judgment.
Say to yourself, “I must be seeing this incorrectly”, or “I must have misunderstood this situation/him/her”.
Then, ask your True Self/Spirit/Holy Spirit – whatever you want to call the part of Source within you, to see the situation for you.
You should be totally blank, not judging the situation in any way. You should see this situation or a person as though for the first time. And just stay in this state, fully expecting that the answer will come from the Source within you.
If you do this, what will happen next will be miraculous.
You may start perceiving the person or situation in a totally different way. What seemed a problem before, may not seem like a problem at all, but just the wrong way of looking at it. What seemed like a person trying to inflict unhappiness, may turn out as someone who just wanted to help;
Or if the action of a person was indeed unfavorable, you’ll see the reasons why they did what they did, which will cause understanding and compassion, instead of negativity.
So please, always remember. Any negative emotional reaction you feel because of some situation or person shows an ego involvement.
The way out is to stop believing in the egotistic distorted interpretation, but to step back from the situation, and be willing to look at it again – from the perspective of your Higher Self, the True Self, which is who you really are.
