When faced with any pain or grief — past, present, or promised — the first thing our lower nature, the “me mind,” usually asks is: “What’s to be done? Who can I speak to about it? What’s the best way for me to handle it? Is there any way out?” And at the heart of these complaints, whether detected or not, is the me mind’s favorite question: “Why does everything happen to me?”

But at the root of each of these fearful questions which seem to seek a way out of the sorrow lies a secret assumption, one that keeps us defeated and going around in sad circles. And the deception in this assumption of ours is so habitual that if it weren’t for the existence of a higher order of self, with its powers of higher perception, this subtle betrayal would be complete. What is this unconscious assumption that almost none can see?

The deception begins with the assumption that whatever your current pain may be, it must be real. And, more importantly, hidden in this same unsuspected assumption, is the wrong reasoning that since that ache is lodged in your heart — it must follow that that pain belongs to you.

Even if you doubt the existence of a higher, happier life level, the following is beyond all doubt: living from a mind that automatically assumes suffering is real, gives you no choice other than to remain a perpetual victim. This defeated inner condition is the same as being sentenced to a life of perpetual sadness and resentment. Our lives aren’t meant to be spent in this wasteful way. Following is a new and much higher way to look at, and solve, this very old problem.

The next time any sadness, or worry of any kind, calls for you, slow the whole of yourself down and work to quietly observe yourself.

Your voluntary state of conscious, but alert relaxation, will stand in sharp contrast to the rapid-fire contents of your own mind as one thought after another races through it, competing for your attention.

Use your consciousness of this contrast, and the higher self-awareness this inner conflict naturally creates, to keep you wide awake to these invading thoughts and feelings. This sustained and elevated awareness is vital to your success. Here’s why.

No matter how familiar that grief or anger may seem as it floods through you, allow your new awareness to help you just consciously brush aside what you think you know about it. Make it your heartfelt intention to see what that pain is trying to tell you about you. Here’s the explanation.

The me mind knows if it can get you to believe in its conflict and suffering, then the reasons for that suffering must be real. This is where the darkness triumphs. In so many unspoken words — words whispered in the dimly lit portions of your own mind — it tells you: “Since this pain is real, your problem has to be real as well.” Yes, there may be a real problem. But it’s rarely, if ever, what we think it is which is why our long-awaited victory never comes.

Work consciously, persistently, defiantly to see life through the eyes of Truth. The following insights will help you gain the strength you need to leave the “victim” level of life behind you and to reach for a higher, happier life level:

♦ Any psychological suffering your mind tells you is something you’ll just have to live with is coming to you from a part of your lower nature that’s killing you.

♦ Without your relaxed awareness of some thought or feeling as it courses through your psychic system, you don’t have the choice whether or not to be that thought or feeling.

♦ You can wake up right in the middle of any thought that may be terrorizing you and see that’s all it was: a thought.

♦ The greatest darkness in the world becomes powerless, and then disappears, in the light of higher learning.

♦ Your new life begins the moment you choose to leave your old one behind you.