Besides creating a mental prison for ourselves, neurotic thinking can prevent us from having a normal conversation with other people. We feel trapped and want a solution, but if someone shows up with suggestions for freedom, we don't listen. All we can talk about is our situation and how overwhelmed we are. We don't want to change anything about ourselves, we want everything outside of us to change. Perhaps when people stop trying to chat with her and she gets tired of sitting in the mud, the young woman in this Eight of Swords will pull off that blindfold and get moving.
The extreme self-centered attitude is the source of suffering.
—Dalai Lama
Anger is considered a poison when it’s self-motivated and self-centered. But take that attachment to the self out of anger and the same emotion becomes the fierce energy of determination, which is a very positive force …
—Roshi Bernie Glassman and Rick Fields
Sometimes we all need a good wallowing.
ReplyDeleteWallowing can be part of the process. :)
DeleteI am trying not to go there. Maybe a good chocolate bar will help.
Delete