“To see your drama clearly is to be liberated from it.” Ken Keyes Jr.
When I look back on the drama in my life, it looks different from when I was consumed by it. I can see how I contributed to most of it, at least since I’ve been an adult. As a child, I innocently thought that the drama around me was all about me. I’ve made it all about me as an adult, too.
The truth is that it is rarely about me, except for the ways in which I contribute energetically. If I remove that energy, something opens up in the drama—for me, at least, and sometimes even for others involved. Something releases. I am no longer victim or perpetrator. I now get to respond instead of react.
When I look closely, carefully, staying in the moment, then I can usually find my way through it—one step at a time. Rarely can I solve the whole drama in a single moment, but I can take a single moment and remove the energy that stirs the drama further. That energy is then available to use in ways that are more helpful.
Suffering is nothing new but becoming conscious enough to move through suffering with integrity and grace, not hanging onto it, is something for which I strive. It helps to hear from folks who understand and are trying to find their way through the drama. I feel my oneness with them and with all human beings.
Pema Chodron offers this prayer taken from The Four Limitless Ones, and I offer it to you:
May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
May we be free from suffering and the root of suffering.
May we not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.
May we dwell in the great equanimity free from passion, aggression, and prejudice.
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