Disease or At

Disease or At-Ease

Daniel Webster defines disease as any departure from health, either of mind or of body. On the other hand, Osho says that disease is really dis-ease, meaning that state when you are not at ease with either your mind or body. In other words, he is saying that you create your own disease. The fact is that your body may become ill, but this does not mean that you must be diseased. I have seen people in the last stages of the death process who are totally happy and joyous. Their bodies are ill, but they are disease free.

Disease is only a state of mind, and not a fact or reality. The body can be falling apart, but you can remain disease free. The fact is that only you can create disease by creating conflict with yourself and with existence. The more conflict you create, the more problems that you experience, and the more disease you have. However, you have the power to conquer this self-inflicted malady. The paradox in conquering dis-ease is that there is no conquering to be done. You simply have to see the game that your mind is playing with you, be the witness to the game, go inside and see you, and find that space within you that does not want, desire, need, hope or expect. When you do this, you will experience being at-ease. Remember, dis-ease is problem laden. When you live and become one with the space of at-ease, problems cease to exist.

What exactly is a problem? From one perspective, this is a very hard question to answer, and yet, from another, it is the simplest thing to understand. The difficulty arises in being able to define the infinite number of situations and conditions that create a problem a problem. How can infinity be defined? In fact, the moment you define one situation or one condition as a problem, the very next moment it may cease to be a problem, yet nothing external has changed.

Problems are not genetically determined or inherited, although they might appear so. Problems are not even environmentally determined. If problems were genetically or environmentally created, then every time the same situation would occur, you would experience it in the same manner. You would both think and feel the same each time. You know this is not true! You know this is not your experience!

If problems are not genetically or environmentally determined, then where do they come from? They come from the mind and the mind's acceptance of the stories it tells itself, and any feelings created by and accompanying these stories. These stories are your belief systems. Thus, problems only exist if your mind believes that your world is not going the way you want, and you believe that your mind is telling you the truth. Your belief in this mental conflict then creates a feeling that then accompanies the belief. This feeling is one that you typically judge as negative: such as fear, anger and sadness. How many times have you declared a situation to be a problem when you were feeling happy about it?

When you are experiencing a problem, you see yourself experiencing some type of loss. You see through your minds eye that you are losing some form of power, you do not like it, want it to happen or to continue. Your perceived loss of power extends far beyond your external environment. It reaches deep down inside you to your feelings. You want your power back. You want the environment to change according to your wishes, and you want your emotions to be what you want them to be. Neither is happening, and now you have a problem! The key issues are having a perceived loss of power, a negative emotional response to that perceived loss, and not wanting it that way. It is not even that you just want it different. No, you want it the way you want it. Anything less, and you have a problem.

Assume for a moment that it is raining, and you believe you have to cut the lawn. The key ingredient here is the concept of have to. Have to means that you have no choice, that you do not really want to do it. What do you think you might feel if the rain interferes with your cutting the lawn? Would you feel fear, love, anger, sadness or happiness? If I were you, I might be feeling happy. If you are feeling happy, there is no longer any conflict between what is and what you want. A problem does not exist. The rain is not interfering with what you want. In fact, the rain is creating an environment, which you like. You do not have to cut the grass. You have an honest excuse not to that which you believe you have to do.

However, if you had planned to play a round of golf, and it rains, then you might be experiencing something very different: perhaps anger. You want to play golf, not sit home during the rain. Now a problem exists. It exists in two parts. First is your loss of power over your environment. You want the weather to be clear and sunny. You discover that you do not have the power to make it so, nor do you have the power to change it once the bad weather sets in. The moment you think that you are going to lose power, believe you have lost power or are losing power, you create a problem for yourself. This loss of power is evident each time your wants, expectations, desires, hopes, needs and so on are not met. In these moments, you experience a type of impotency, and you know that this is one experience you can do without. Who wants to be impotent?

Second, in addition to your power loss, via your wants not being satisfied, you experience an emotional response. The greater the perceived loss, the greater the emotional response. Of course, this emotional response is not something you particularly want or like. In fact, it is typically thought of as negative. When you lose your power, you will feel either sadness, anger or maybe even fear. Think about it for a moment: have you ever felt happy when you thought you were losing something you wanted? Have you ever felt angry, sad or fearful when you got what you wanted?

Problems do not just happen. Emotions do not just happen. Your genetics and environment have nothing to do with causing you to experience the rain as a problem or as a benefit. It is your mind interpreting the environment based on your wants, needs, desires, expectations, hopes, shoulds and should nots. In fact, both problems and emotions are your creation, not your environment’s. In this game of the mind, if you are to be happy and dis-ease free, the world is going to have to run according to your mind trips, according to your shoulds and should nots and according to your belief systems. Power equals problems, which then equals disease.

When you do not perceive your world according to your belief systems, how do you feel? Are you happy or unhappy? The emotions that you are experiencing are not just happening. You are causing yourself to feel whatever you are feeling based on your belief systems and how those belief systems interface with your perception of the environment. When examined closely, this means that there truly is no such thing as a PROBLEM. Instead, there are only your perceptions of the environment and how they relate to your belief systems. If you see your environment as a problem, then it is. The Law of Limitations is creating a scenario that is one of disease and not at-ease. This means that if you think you are at dis-ease, then you will be. Once you have created a problem, your degree of attachment to your belief system about the problem creates the degree of severity that you associate with it. The more attached you are to the outcome, the greater the problem. Wow! This is nothing more than masturbation of the mind.

Osho once said, “Nature is always loving. It is your fighting that creates the problem. Otherwise existence is always graceful, it is always motherly.” Without your fighting, without your wanting power, without your wanting existence to be your way, there would be no such things as problems. Instead of problems, you would simply have situations to deal with. The difference between a situation and a problem is the difference between night and day. Situations are to be worked on, and problems are something to fret about.

Begin to discover your wants, wishes, hopes, needs, expectations, shoulds and should nots and so on, and you will discover your belief systems. These belief systems become your addictions. Your addiction to these systems is no less controlling than an addiction to alcohol, heroin or cigarettes. In fact, your addiction to your belief systems is even far more insidious and far more addicting than substance addictions. There is nothing more addicting than your beliefs. This powerful addiction happens for several reasons. First, beliefs are not easily recognized. Second, once recognized you create a new belief about the old one and you do not recognize the new one. This process is repeated over and over again. Third, even when recognized, you do not believe that your beliefs are beliefs. You accept them as truths. This causes you to perceive them as serious and real. Fourth, when you get what you want, all of your beliefs are reinforced, even if vicariously. When this happens, why would you want to give up the idea of power? Fifth, when you do not get what you want, your negative concept of loss of power is reinforced. This means that you believe that you have no power to change anything. You see yourself as simply a victim who can do nothing about his life. Even though being a victim has a negative side to it, it also has a positive side. As a victim, you cannot be held responsible for you or for what happens. This is a very powerful combination!

Disease is not your natural state! It is a contrivance of your mind, your ego and your power. At-ease is your natural state. Then the question arises, “How do I get back to my natural state?” The answer is simple. You need to jump into awareness. You need to be in the moment. You need to let go of all of your beliefs and simply be. I know that this does not tell you how to do it, yet this is what you are to do. The fact is that you need do nothing about your belief systems, other than to become aware of them and to realize their absurdity. This awareness will destroy their power over you. Once you can laugh at your absurdities, you are no longer in a state of dis-ease, but at-ease.

Werner Erhart said, “That which is, is obvious, but that which is not obvious is, so what.” Once you begin to realize what he means, you will understand the absurdity of your power trips. You will understand the absurdity of believing that your belief systems are truths. Become aware of your thoughts, feelings and behaviors and you will recognize the games that you are playing. This awareness is the key to your recognizing the dis-ease and moving yourself into being at-ease.

Until you make the jump into awareness, use your mind to go beyond the mind. Begin this by simply becoming the reflector. This means that you should look back at each emotion and each thought and see what you are experiencing. Reflecting is what you do when you examine yourself after the fact. Once you have conquered reflecting, you will move into watching. Watching is seeing yourself thinking, feeling and acting at the time that you are doing it. When you are watching, there is still a watcher doing the watching and this means that there is still some ego, but it is becoming less prominent. In time, you will make the jump from watching to awareness. In awareness, there is not even a watcher. There is only the knowing and the doing. This is the state of oneness and enlightenment. In this state, problems just do not exist, and this is a state of being that everyone can have NOW.

Meditation is a method to use your mind to go beyond your mind. The type you use is less important than the fact that you are meditating. There are many types of meditation to choose from such as active meditations and silent ones. There are music meditations and there are meditations that use no sound other than what is occurring in the moment. My favorite meditations are vipassana and the Osho Active Meditations©. Pick a meditation that appeals to you and do it for 30 days. If, at the end of that time, you have to force yourself to do it, find a new one. Repeat this process until you find a meditation that you enjoy.

Once you begin meditating and reflecting, you will begin to see the traps that your mind has set for you. You will experience the Law of Despair, which means that when you get tired of something, you will change. The Law of Despair does not dictate the direction of that change, but when you experience it, along with your meditating, reflecting and watching, the change happens exactly as it is supposed to happen. When this happens, you will, simultaneously see the power game that keeps motivating your mind. As you see your power games, you will also begin to see their absurdity. Now real change begins to happen. It happens, not because of any force you use to make it change, but because it is over. Through this process, you will become aware of who and what you are. Simply meditate and watch, and you will become your own master.