Lately, I was bugged with unpleasant thoughts, emotions and psychological tensions in the body. I was trying to figure out how do deal with them following the direct path - advaita.
I often heard on the path about welcoming everything that appears in us and outside, be it positive and negative. And I often also heard that we should be careful that we are not welcoming our experience with an ulterior motive or secret agenda to manipulate or eliminate whatever we are trying to welcome.
I tried this welcoming thing, the way I understood it. Just letting everything appear in me, be it thoughts, sensations and perceptions; pleasant or unpleasant. But ultimately when it came to the unpleasant things, it seemed there was a little thread of “I want to get rid of this” and I was kind of stuck. There was some gap in understanding on what I’m supposed to do or what is meant by “welcoming” on the direct path at all.
So I decided to join my teacher’s satsang online and sent him a question about it.
The question and the answer are in the video below
The answer was totally not what I expected. But I realised that the welcoming we are talking about here is not something we do. It is what consciousness does, consciousness says “Yes” to everything. As Francis says, “If consciousness says no to something, it simply doesn’t happen”.
So what about these unpleasant thoughts, bodily sensations and perceptions? If consciousness says “Yes” to all that, then why?
I understood from Francis’ answer that they appear to tell something, to teach something. An example would be, if you find yourself in the company of obnoxious drunks and feel uneasy, well, maybe listen to that little voice that tells you to get the hell out of there, this is no good, this is not where I want to be!
Or if someone makes you angry, maybe it is time to investigate why I’m getting angry. Is it ignorance or is it justified? If it is ignorance, I need to investigate until I find internal resolution. But it may as well be that anger is justified under certain circumstances, maybe I’m supposed to get angry.
So the answer ultimately is that whatever appears in us appears for a reason. To teach us something or to tell us that there is something we need to do, something to investigate. Certainly, if there is some repetition in our experience that is unpleasant it is calling us to take a closer look or there is danger or ignorance that needs addressing. We can’t wish or “welcome” such experience away, it was already allowed to happen by universal consciousness, the “Yes” has been said and if it were a “No” it wouldn’t happen.
Resources
Full satsang on Francis’ channel : youtube.com/watch?v=WP33G3L7vmI
Francis’ website : francislucille.com