Confusion
People often experience confusion during the awakening process, especially during the purification phase. One way to explain confusion is to say it is the ego’s defense against truth. However, let’s look more specifically at what’s really going on when we experience confusion.
Our old way of understanding things is mental. We think about something, and then we understand it.
With truth, it’s different. We can’t understand truth by thinking about it. Understanding comes from seeing, which is different than thinking.
When we begin to live by the new habits of the spiritual path, we begin to have moments of seeing. In those moments, clarity comes, and we feel clear. However, when we step back into the old habit of thinking, what was clear becomes muddled again, because we are no longer seeing, we are thinking.
As we learn to think about truth less and rely on seeing more, we experience less confusion and more clarity.
What is Seeing?
Seeing is the result of being in the right-mind, just like thinking is the result of being in the wrong-mind. You cannot see with the wrong-mind. The wrong-mind is blind and cannot see.
In order to see more consistently:
- Discern between the wrong-mind and the right-mind.
- Let go of the wrong-mind simply because it is the wrong-mind.
- Maintain a way of being that is in harmony with the right-mind.
When we maintain a way of being that is in harmony with the right-mind, we see naturally.
How to Recognize the Wrong-Mind
The wrong-mind can be recognized by specific characteristics, including:
- Ideas of less than and better than, desired and undesired
- Ideas of good and bad, should be and shouldn’t be
- Perceptions of guilt, victimhood and blame
- Spinning, struggling or habitual thinking
- Conflicted feelings or perceiving conflict
- Anger, hatred, attacking thoughts
- Feeling or perceiving rejection
- Fear, worry, uneasiness
- Defensiveness
- Confusion
Whenever you inquire into an upset and find any of these characteristics at the core of your thinking or at the root of your perception, it means you are in the wrong-mind. That alone is a good reason to drop your way of thinking. Move into rest-accept-trust and the willingness to be healed.
You can see these mistaken ideas very quickly. A long drawn out inquiry process isn’t necessary.
For example:
Imagine some friends are coming to stay with me for a couple of days. Although I am excited to see them, my mind is thrown into a frenzy thinking about the house cleaning I need to do, worrying about the meals I will prepare, and deciding and then doubting my decisions about what we will do while they are here.
Is this the wrong-mind or the right-mind?
If I look, I see that thinking is spinning constantly. That is a characteristic of the wrong-mind.
I see worry about the meals. Worry is a characteristic of the wrong-mind.
I see confusion about what to do while they are here. Confusion is a characteristic of the wrong-mind.
I can journal into my thinking to get more clarity, but if I am willing to let go of the wrong-mind simply because it is the wrong-mind, I already have the clarity I need. Now, I can move into rest-accept-trust. Once I feel more settled into a sense of peace, trust or well being, I can tune into intuition and let it guide me moment-by-moment. If needed, I will maintain a more peaceful way of being by reminding myself to follow intuition one step at a time and trust that all is well.
Note: It may be helpful to print this tip for future reference.
