Why Is It So Hard To Change?

Why is it so hard to change? For thousands of years we have struggled with anger, fear, jealousy, and many other destructive emotions. We find ourselves now in the present with vast and bewildering technological advancements, hundreds of religions, millions of psychiatrists and their books, and yet prisoners to the same emotions that have always overshadowed our living. The world is the reflection of the individual and we only have to look at ourselves to see the same never-ending struggle. We read inspirational books, go to therapy, try certain disciplines, give ourselves to a belief, and yet time and again we slowly fall back into our old patterns irked by the same emotions and situations. The struggle is still there and it is now just a matter of degree. Whatever our problems, it is so difficult to eliminate them. Why? What do we keep missing? What are we not seeing?
Imagine a magnet traveling through a field of nails. All kinds of nails begin to attach themselves to it. You are that magnet and all your life what you have been doing is trying to take off nail by nail. However new ones appear and sometimes even the old ones come back, all because you are a magnet. Now if it were possible to change the attraction of the magnet, what would happen? All the nails would cleanly come off and stay off. The attraction has ended. The problem with our lives is that we don’t really want to change the way we live and think. We just want to change that one or two nails that bother us. We just want to change the amount of food we eat or the way we react to stress, or the depression or whatever the thorn in our side. You can change some of these things by certain disciplines, exercises or medications. Yet as with the magnet, new problems will arise and new thorns will suddenly become attached. It doesn’t give that warning on the medicine prescription or motivational tapes, so be aware! Intelligent change is without force and manipulation. Intelligent change is the only ete
al change. n If you are self-centered, how can you go through life without anger? If you love security more than you love yourself, how can you not suffer the pangs of stress? If conditioning is stronger than your soul, how can you not be depressed? If you keep searching for that which you know nothing about, how can you not feel discontent? If you are afraid, how can you not feel lonely? And yet do we want to let go of security, of conditioning and face our fears? No, that is too much work. All we want is to alleviate the symptom, not the disease. So do you really want to change? To let go of the pain are you willing to let go of that which has brought you pleasure? Will you look at what is giving birth to the problems in your life? Or are you too fond of yourself?