The path to Tranquility (spring)
16. Troubles are all caused by half-awake dreams
Feeling troubled is also a common emotion among us. In addition to external factors such as life, work, and interpersonal relationships, many troubles are caused by our inner conflicts. We don’t understand past experiences well enough and don’t know why they happened, so we can’t predict the future based on past facts, but only fiction based on feelings. Therefore, our consciousness is blurred, everything in front of us feels unreal, and there is always an inexplicable anxiety in our hearts.
Animals' lives are much simpler than ours. Animals live by instinct and do not condemn themselves, do not differentiate between good and bad, and do not need to think about right and wrong. Therefore, they exist naturally, in an unconscious dream state, never to wake up.
However, although we have both rich imagination and stronger rationality than animals, our awareness is still insufficient. Instinctive behaviors may be inhibited by the conscious mind, and the body may have difficulty coping with what the conscious mind wants to do. We are often bound by emotions and habits to view the world in extreme ways, leading to physical and mental divisions and inner conflicts.
Even worse, we often mistake our emotions and habits for who we really are and live for this false self. This is equivalent to creating a dream for ourselves, but this dream cannot completely break away from reality, causing us to be in a state of half-dream and half-awake.
It is this state of confusion that haunts us. We can't distinguish which ones are dreams and which ones are reality, so we can't find goals that are truly beneficial to life, and we can't enjoy the beauty of the moment. In this state, we are likely to make some decisions that we will regret in the future because there is a huge difference and conflict between dreams and reality.
When troubles arise, the best solution is to analyze your feelings and thoughts and engage in inner dialogue. Sometimes our attitudes or expectations about certain things are not clear enough, so we feel troubled. We can try to re-examine our needs from different perspectives and combine the values and goals we pursue with the meaning of life.
We can also try to sit down and take a deep breath, focus on observing our emotions, and let ourselves choose between life and death. At the critical moment of life and death, we can completely wake up from the dream and find a solution to the problem. The most troubling thing is being forced to make big decisions. Forced to choose between two conflicting options can leave us feeling helpless and awakened from our dreams. Therefore, when we use life and death as the standard of measurement, the problem is easily solved.
Everyone's dreams and pursuits may be different, but satisfaction can only come from truly conscious actions. Therefore, if we can get rid of ourselves, expand our consciousness, live for our true self, and consider the true interests of life everywhere, we will not easily fall into trouble. When we give up pursuing our dreams and no longer force ourselves to make choices, we can stay away from troubles and gain true freedom.
17. Eliminate ignorance to avoid conflict
