“The ego cannot distinguish between a situation and its interpretation of and reaction to that situation. You might say, ‘What a dreadful day,’ without realizing that the cold, the wind, and the rain or whatever condition you react to are not dreadful. They are as they are.
What is dreadful is your reaction, your inner resistance to it, and the emotion that is created by that resistance. In Shakespeare’s words, ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’ What is more, suffering or negativity is often misperceived by the ego as
pleasure because up to a point the ego strengthens itself through it.
For example, anger or resentment strengthens the ego enormously by increasing the sense of separateness, emphasizing the otherness of others, and creating a seemingly unassailable fortress-like mental position of ‘rightness.’ ”
“No matter how anything seems or appears—
everything is here to help you become the one you were born to be.”
—Matt Kahn
“If you were able to observe the physiological changes that take place inside your body when possessed by such negative states, and how they adversely affect the functioning of the heart, the digestive and immune systems, and countless other bodily functions, it would become abundantly clear that such states are indeed pathological, are forms of suffering and not pleasure.”
mattkahn.org
