When a storm of life rocks our boat, we have a natural tendency to feel that the cause of our problems are outside us. The stupid driver who cut us off, the jerk who made us spill our coffee, the rude waiter at the restaurant, the uncaring boss who demands more, the fear of missing your connecting flight, feeling jealousy at someone’s success, and on and on and on… all “outside” people and events that are the cause of our problems.
But is this really the case? Is the source of our problems outside us, external to us?
“The problem is you. The solution is you”~ Swami Dayananda Saraswathi
That driver who cut you off, making you angry, was that driver the problem? Or was it something inside you that made you angry? It is clear and logical that the experience was of someone cutting your off on the road. There is no “anger” in the witnessing of that experience. Yet “anger” arose. And the source of that “anger” is within. Maybe you were in a hurry to get some place important, and you wanted a smooth, fast ride there, and you saw being cut off as an interference in this. And with your expectation violated, you got angry! See, all this reaction is an inside job. The fix too therefore should be an inside job.
It is useful to see it this way. We have buttons on ourselves, visible outside for others or situations to push. When someone pushes a button, like this driver who cut you off, there is a reaction inside, in this case, anger. The driver’s act of cutting you off is the pushing of the button on you. And mistakenly, you blame the driver for it. The really important question is “Why is this button here in the first place?” and if you pursued that inquiry, you’d be looking for an internal solution to your problem. After all a button that doesn’t exist is a button that cannot be pushed, right!
Extending this, we could say that all things triggering us, are in fact a result of us having buttons that can be used to trigger us. This is not to say that there aren’t entirely legitimate and important and real valid and serious reasons why a button may be there in us. Despite the legitimacy and validity for the existence of a button in us, any button whatsoever, the reality is still that the button exists. As long as the button exists, along will come a person or a situation that will push it. If we keep thinking that the button-pushing person or situation is the problem, we’ll have to keep reacting to those people and situations and eventually start receding from them. This can only increase internal stress and pressure and lead to other challenges for us. Rather, if we were true to ourselves, we can see that the problem of button-pushing will go away if there were no buttons. In this way, we can own the problem, and thus can own the solution.
This is why the problem is you, and the solution is also you.
Seen in a much deeper way, the root of all problems you face / feel / experience, is because of your strong belief that you are a separate person, a distinct separate identity. Reality, however is no-other-ness, where separation doesn’t exist. The dispelling of the illusion of separation, and the realization of Union, and the direct persistent experience of no-other-ness, is what is known as awakening, living awake, enlightenment and so forth. It is Self-Realization, knowing and being the True Self, the One without the other.
The system of Reiki helps initially as a practical way to undertake the inward journey, where you are empowered to find that peace, happiness, love, gratitude, within you, and let go of anger, worry, greed, jealousy and their ilk. The consistent practice of the system of Reiki also opens the doors to Self-Realization, where the little-I, the ego-self is surrendered and dissolved and there is Wholeness, pure Freedom alone.
Seen in this deeper light, we can say this:
The problem is you. The solution is You!
… and by “You” is implied the real You that is True Self!
