On real healing

 To gaze directly into your pain

is to discover your true strength.

 

When you turn toward the ache

of not being seen,

of feeling alone,

these energies must be allowed

to pass through you.

Ignored emotions do not disappear;

they sink, gather, and tighten within.

 

Real healing comes

when you walk through the feeling,

cell by cell,

allowing the emotion to rise, move,

and complete its journey.

Only then are you no longer shaped

or shaken

by the force it once held over you.

 

Strength is not born

from denying your emotions

or pretending they do not matter.

Such avoidance has no weight,

no grounding.

Strength arises

only when you fully experience

what is asking to be felt.

 

For example—

If you have long felt unseen

or unacknowledged by your parents,

once you truly move through that wound,

clarity comes.

You understand why they behaved

as they did,

and you no longer fall

into the old feelings

of exclusion or rejection.

 

And later,

when someone important to you

overlooks you,

your inner state remains steady.

This is growth—

the quiet, essential expansion.

 

Because you cannot control

how others treat you,

and you never will.

But you can learn

to walk through your own shadows,

to rise on the other side

lighter, freer, and whole.

 

By Suzanne Yang

 

Enjoy the ride

 Your “path” is only this unfolding

You make effort,

you make none—

still, just life unfolding. 

Only the mind creates its story

born out of conditioning

of how things should be.

When “we” fall away

life keeps unfolding.

We only assumed

our efforts made it happen.

The unfolding continues—

silent, effortless, whole.

(Baerbel Marlena Simon, Life unfolds)

Body, mind and world are One. This is hard to see but possible to witness. We are not in charge, a higher power is. We are like children in a toy cart at the supermarket doing the steering and not realizing that our parents are pushing us around. Dysfunction is part of the “body, mind, world matrix” to demonstrate that our suffering is self-imposed. The moment we acknowledge the presence of this matrix we have a shot at dropping all identification with it. 

The moment we get the self out of the Way, the programming of the self-directed movie changes. We are bound to enjoy the flow of life once we stop throwing wrenches into the works. This is like a little boy who started crying because the cart was going to the left and not the right as he intended. The cart stops altogether as the parents try to console him. Free yourself from the identification with body, mind and world and enjoy the ride! 

Why the Heart Cannot Settle

 Student: Even though I’ve made up my mind to learn, I’m still often lazy. Even if I can steal just one minute to idle, I will indulge, and when I do nothing all day, at night a thought arises: “I wasted the whole day. I shouldn’t waste tomorrow.”

 

Suzhen Liu:

In meditation practice, you slowly observe—and it is like passing through one gate after another. Each gate you break through is the accumulation of energy that no longer resists. This is not forcing or persuading, it must unfold naturally. If you force it, you return to the starting point.

 

This is the skill of meditation, and it requires a process. We keep trying to reassure ourselves because our hearts cannot settle in any state at all. We constantly search for a feeling of safety. All of this must be learned. There must be a process of understanding our own obstacles; without going through this, there will be no real stability.

 

The habit of asking, “What am I going to do next?” is simply our way of seeking reassurance. Once our plan or structure stops and that reassurance disappears, we become restless and uneasy. We don’t even know this is happening—so we keep doing things to fill the space.

 

For the heart to settle, we must move through these layers and understand these internal obstacles. Then the impulse of “I must make myself feel stable” loses its foundation. These obstacles are complex and numerous. We spend a lifetime soothing them, yet still feel empty, unfulfilled, and cornered, and the more we soothe them, the more demanding they become. It becomes harder and harder to satisfy them.

 

When we finally allow everything to drop, what lies beneath will begin to surface. If we can continue with meditation practice, we can move forward step by step. We often find meditation dull or boring because the “self” craves new stimulation—this too is connected to the sense of safety. After some time, when meditation feels “not fresh” or “not fun,” laziness appears.

 

But the attitude, effort, and time you invest in meditation will never be wasted. Compared to the joy of the ordinary world, meditative stillness is the elephant; worldly pleasures are the ants.

 

We pursue reassurance—we love that feeling. Human beings have passed down this tendency since ancient times. When we arrive in this world, we naturally receive these patterns. Human beings have always existed in this mode.

 

When the mind becomes quiet, it can merge with what you are observing—whatever challenge or state you are facing now. That feeling is indescribable. It arises naturally as you continue walking the path of meditation.

 

By Suzhen Liu

If you enjoy Suzhen Liu’s writings please check out her new book, “Discover Love Within—Release Your Suffering” available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Discover-Love-Within-Release-Suffering-ebook/dp/B0G4L29MVN

On freedom

 What does it mean to be free? 

Free to do what we want?

Not to have obligations? 

No need to work? 

Freedom is the ability to be:

Hear the     S (ilence),

sense the     E (nergy),

feel the     L (ove),

see the     F (low).

Be S-E-L-F with a simple pivot when the connection is severed.

Awakening from the Dream of the Mind

 The awareness of a single thought, the awareness of mind, are very important. In the beginning, you may not know what is what; everything feels unclear, but when awareness is present for a while, it forms a moment of sudden clarity—an instant insight.

Yet at the beginning, you will definitely feel confused: “What am I supposed to do? What does this mean?” You will have many doubts. No matter what, just keep watching, keep noticing, keep observing. One day there comes the point when you will naturally understand.

And this kind of understanding is what gives you the power to be free. No one can teach it to you. You must see it for yourself—pay attention, observe. Only then does true safety arise. Most people don’t care about this; they don’t understand it and hope to quickly get what they want or what solves their problems. Because of that, they constantly miss this insight. This is the essential point.

And so they continue to cycle through suffering. This cycle doesn’t need to wait until the afterlife. We repeat the same painful cycle over and over in this life. There is already a sense of safety within you, but your mindset keeps you from experiencing it. It is like searching for something inside a dream. You want safety, but no matter how hard you search, you can’t find it.

Why? Because in the dream, you don’t know you are dreaming. Only when you wake up do you realize it was all a dream. You were scared in the dream, not because you truly lacked safety. Now—even though your eyes are open—do you know that you may still be dreaming? When you sleep, you know you are dreaming only after you wake. But in this waking state, you don’t yet realize that what you’re experiencing is also a dream.

The moment you “wake up;” the moment you truly understand everything we’ve been talking about, just one insight—one shift—and you immediately awaken. And at that moment, you no longer need safety. That awakening is safety. And this safety cannot be taken from you, destroyed, or broken by anything. That is real safety.

When your mind is clear and aware, everything you experience becomes like a dream. I rarely dream, but on the occasions when I do, I know that I’m dreaming, and I can see the dream playing out. If you know you’re dreaming, what happens? You naturally have distance from your troubles. You don’t get trapped in them. You don’t suffer because of them. This is very important.

 The difference between knowing you’re dreaming and not knowing is profound. If you don’t know, you believe your thoughts are facts. You identify with your suffering as something real, something that must be resisted or eliminated. Because you believe it is real, you fight it. But when you know you’re dreaming, you no longer identify with it. You see that it is illusory.

If it doesn’t truly exist, why fight it? This is the difference. Believing your thoughts are real keeps you inside the dream. Seeing them as illusions frees you from the dream. They are merely creations of the mind. When you stop identifying with them, their power naturally fades.

If you keep believing—for example, “I feel guilty, so I must seek forgiveness”—that energy grows stronger. It won’t disappear; it will shift into different forms, but behind every mask is still guilt. Your perspective and identification continuously create the next layers of suffering.

We think the pain is real, and so we think we must fight, eliminate, or solve it. This creates more suffering, but when you recognize it is merely an illusion—a fabrication of the mind—why fight it?

When you stop fighting, it naturally dissolves like clouds disappearing into the sky. This is effortless freedom. This is ease.

By Suzhen Liu

If you enjoy Suzhen Liu’s writings, please check out her new book, “Discover Love Within—Release Your Suffering” available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Discover-Love-Within-Release-Suffering-ebook/dp/B0G4L29MVN

 

Rest in the “I Am”

 We are in Him, and we search for Him saying, “where is He?”

The little “I” wells up and does all the mischief.

Ramana Maharshi 

When you are 60, your workplace overlooks you,

but you are not your work and income.

When you are 70, society sidelines you,

but you are not your name and fame.

When you are 80, friends overlook you,

but love resides within.

When you are 90, your body lets go.

but “I Am” remains. 

“I Am” is accessible in deep meditation just as much as in the busyness of life. Connect with “I Am” here and now and aging is not a concern.

Perceive (Third Eye)

Sense (Kundalini)

Feel (Heart Chakra)

Know (Crown Chakra)