Resistance Perpetuates Difficult Emotions

I have a question kind of about emotions. uh I feel like there's a lot of of like a constant emotion that I have that that's here that I sense and even during the meditations where I kind of recognize being or awareness the emotion stays and it's still very intense kind of all along I wouldn't say it's constant comes and goes but It's very present and it's like it um it's like a veil on awareness sort of. And I saw a lot of videos where you which were maybe a little bit older. You talked about the tantric way and the fedantic way. Not sure what we do what we did this past few days is. Um but do you still feel like this is a good approach? >> Yes. What what would you recommend? Should I just uh not ignore but just live with it kind of and just um >> stay with it as it is? >> The approach we just discussed was that going deeply into any emotion that that's the tantric approach. Devouring your emotions, embracing them, kiss the toad. You kiss you embrace that which is most distasteful to you. That's the tantric approach. And if you go if you go that approach you you find as I say you find peace at the heart of every emotion. The vantic approach is rather the opposite of that. You separate yourself from the emotion. I am that which is aware of it. So but both approaches lead to lead to the same resolution the same conclusion. I I recommend experimenting with both. U most of what we've done thus far this week has been the vantic approach. Although I no longer separate these two different approaches as as clearly as I used to because they they've sort of merged in the way I describe things now. But I think for you I would I would recommend if if this feeling is almost constant and feels all perervasive I think I would recommend the the tantric approach not turning away from it just understanding but more important the feeling that this emotion arises in awareness like a cloud arising in the sky. Okay, the cloud it's like a mist in the morning. It's not a clearly defined cloud. It's a thin mist that seems to pervade the entire sky almost. The mist seems to be almost synonymous with the sky. It's not because you know by midday the mist has burnt off and the the empty sky remains. But it feels as if your emotion is like the like the mist. It it's almost synonymous with awareness. It's you said it was almost constant and and all pervasive. So I would I would recommend you you that you feel that that emotion arises in awareness. It is known by awareness and and it is made of awareness is the only stuff present in your experience out of which any experience could be made. that the waves and the currents in the ocean can only be made of water. There's nothing else in the ocean out of which they could be made. So whatever the shapes of the waves and currents, they're all names and forms of water. Same with your emotions. However painful your emotions are, they all arise in awareness. They're not placed into awareness from outside. The the mist isn't placed into the sky from outside. It arises from within the sky. Your emotions arise from within awareness and are made only of awareness. So ultimately the stuff out of which even this unpleasant emotion is made is the pure peace of awareness. So I I recommend you you totally welcome accept embrace these just let it just let it be there. um see that the the only substance present in that feeling is awareness itself. And awareness is is transparent. It's it's there's nothing inherently hurtful there. It could go deeply into the emotion in that way. It'll lose its it'll lose its unpleasant quality. You won't even know that it's an unpleasant emotion. All you feel is a slight tingling sensation or vibration appearing in awareness. You'll no longer know that it's an unpleasant sensation. Just a neutral tingling vibration. >> So just do nothing about the fact that I'm so used to resisting it. Just just going into it. And >> well, it's resist. It's your resistance to it that perpetuates it. Because by resisting it, you push it away and you allow it, you allow it to exist as a painful emotion. You resist it because it's a painful emotion. So as long as you're resisting it, it remains as a painful emotion. So you're colluding by resisting with it. By resisting it, you are colluding with it. You are perpetuating it. As long as you resist it, it's going to remain as an unpleasant emotion forever. You stop resisting it, you allow the emotion to come close, close to you awareness. So close that you can no longer separate yourself from it and you just taste the stuff out of which the emotion is made. It's like touching the stuff out of which a wave is made. All that's there is water. All there is to your emotion is pure consciousness. It's just a ripple. It's just a vibration. It's just a ripple appearing in consciousness. There's nothing inherently unpleasant about it. It's not You don't resist it because it's unpleasant. It's unpleasant because you resist it. Think of it, William. What would what would the experience of suffering be if there were no resistance to it? How would you experience the suffering if there was no resistance to it? I guess there would be no limit between awareness and >> but how would what would the what would the suffering feel like? Be be more in your feelings. What what would the what would the suffering feel like if you if there was no resistance to it >> ultimately? I guess just space-like maybe a little bit intense but >> it it would feel like happiness. >> Why? Because suffering is resistance. Yeah. Think of think of any experience of suffering that you have. I'm not talking about physical pain, psychological or emotional suffering. Is it clear to you that it always by definition involves resistance? >> Yeah, for sure. >> That that's what suffering is. It's resistance. I don't like what's happening. That's what suffering is. I don't like what's happening now. So, if there was no resistance to suffering, what would become of the suffering? The resistance couldn't stand because resistance is suffering. >> You don't resist suffering because it's suffering. You you you suffer because you resist because you say no, I don't like what's happening. You create your suffering. The world doesn't make you suffer. You create your own suffering entirely. I'm not talking about physical pain. I'm talking about psychos psychological suffering. Nobody does it to you. The world doesn't do it to you. You do it to yourself. How do you do it? Just one simple way. I don't like what's happening. That's it. All your suffering consists of that single thought. I don't like what's happening. What happens if you if if that resistance if that resistance drops? What what happens to your suffering? it can't stand. So we create our suffering. The world doesn't do it to us and we create it very simply just through resistance. But awareness doesn't know the meaning of the word resistance. That the space in this room cannot it's not that it it's not just that it does not resist each one of us as we walk into the room. The space of this room cannot resist that. What would it resist with? What would it There's nothing in the space that could resist. Awareness is like that. It It doesn't know the meaning of the word resistance. It's pure openness. Openness without resistance. Face your feelings not with your mind that chooses and says, "I like this, but I don't like that. I don't like what is happening. I want what is not happening." That's how our mind faces experience. But face your experience from awareness as awareness. Take your stand as awareness and face your experience from that point of view and see what happens to your suffering. >> Yeah. Thank you. I do feel that um it's like the only like it's the only thing that makes me feel separate like when there's not maybe those emotions or that resistance. >> Yeah. >> It's it's it's like there there's no there's no separation. Yes. >> Within me. So >> yes, exactly. >> Thank you, Robert.