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It is said
that the world’s most destructive force is that of resistance. Resistance
keeps us in bondage, causes turmoil, strife, unhappiness and poverty, and
mental, emotional, physical and psychological pain. All too often we buy
into someone else’s perception of us and begin to react, thus escalating the
problem. We sometimes feel the need to fight back, to justify or explain,
only to find that the difficulty continues to expand as we resist another’s
opinion about us. If we resist them or fight back, it only puts us on the
same level we consider them to be. The law of non-resistance tells us to
“resist not,” “don’t take it personally,” or “what you think of me is none
of my business.”
Many think that the law of non-resistance is being weak or a doormat.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Non-resistance is not
indifference; it is not a sign of weakness or ignorance. Non-resistance is
stronger than resistance, it is powerful, and to actively engage in
non-resistance takes great awareness, love, practice and bravery.
There is a delightful story of non-resistance and a bag of cookies. A
woman was shopping and decided that she would break up the long day by
stopping for a cup of coffee.
She got to the coffee shop, bought a bag of cookies, put them into her
purse, took her coffee and turned to find a table in the busy coffee shop.
She looked around and there was not a table to be found. Finally, she
spotted a lone man reading his newspaper at a table for four. She
approached him and asked if she could share his table and he agreed.
Seating herself across from him, she opened her purse, took out a magazine
and began reading.
After a while, she looked up and reached for a cookie, only to see the
man across from her also taking a cookie. She glared at him, how dare he!
He smiled at her and she resumed reading. Moments later she reached for
another cookie and the man also took another cookie. She was furious but
returned to her reading. Time went by when she angrily glanced up from her
reading at the remaining last cookie. The man reached across, broke the
cookie in half and offered her the bigger half. She grabbed it, stuffed it
into her mouth, the man smiled as she got up to leave.
She was steaming, the very idea of him taking her cookies. Her coffee
break was ruined. She opened her purse to put her magazine away and there
staring back at her was the bag of cookies she purchased upon entering the
coffee shop. All along she had unknowingly been helping herself to the
cookies belonging to the gracious man whose table she had shared.
Non-resistance, the secret to life is to not take it personally. The
story is a perfect example of non-resistance. Resistance is combating what
appears to be, not what really is. Non-resistance is putting ourselves in
God’s hands and aligning ourselves with a higher purpose.
Resistance produces hurt, poverty, unhappiness and ill health.
Resistance is produced by fear and fear is caused by the idea of losing
control. Oh, how we love control! We want to control events so that we can
always be sure of the outcome. Once we understand that we cannot have
control over every little thing, we can then lay down resistance and
surrender to what is in control: God. And we can let Him continue to run
the universe. What a relief!
The things that we meet in life do not hurt us. They are powerless
to affect us; it is our reaction to them that causes us pain.
The Bible tells us, “…an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” (Matt
5:38) This speaks metaphysically to our tendency towards revenge, our
desire to hurt those who hurt us. Mother Teresa observed if that were true
we would be a world of blind, toothless people.
Rev. Eric Butterworth points out that we are more than human and that
from our Divine selves, the only way to “get even” is to love, bless and
forgive.
What we resist persists. When we are non-resistant we withdraw the
power of our attention and refuse to participate in the evil or error, thus
learning the lesson that needs to be learned and we then grow in
consciousness as a result of the experience.
From the growth in consciousness we receive a blessing of greater good
that transcends any harm the one in error tried to cause. As Joseph
learned, “They meant it for evil but God meant it for good.” (Gen. 50:19)
Resist not, and turn the other cheek does not mean be a doormat. It
means to turn to the spiritual side of our nature, that part of us that can
never be hurt and knows we are one with God and that no one can take or keep
our good from us.
The secret to life is not to take it personally. The secret to life is
non-resistance.
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