Have you ever thought that the universe or All That Is is callous? When you are rejected from receiving something you desired or when you are feeling lost and alone, do you assume the world is somehow punishing you? This is a common reaction that fuels your sense of personal suffering. Your feeling that what you are experiencing is a program designed just to make your life hard and miserable is not truth or fact. It is simply a way you emotionally react in a moment of lack of awareness.

In a state of awareness, you realize the universe is neutral. It has no real preferences. It has no special people or a list of people to punish. It really has no opinion about who you are, what you’re about, or what you need because the universe or All That Is is not an “it.” The universe contains you as well as everything and all, so the neutrality of the universe is ultimately the neutrality of self. Whatever you might identify as you, in awareness, is without judgment about who you are or where you are going or what you are doing. It simply is. The aware self, the natural and uncontrived self, is neutral. It is only when you limit your self to the personal version of self, something we call the political self, that the judgments, and hence the suffering or discomfort, begin. Sometimes the Buddhist term “suffering” sounds too harsh, so you might substitute the word “discomfort.” Everyone feels uncomfortable from time to time; it’s what you do with that discomfort that really matters.

Your Judgments Create Your Discomfort