Untangling New Age 'Spiritual' Confusion: "What You Resist Persists"
What you resist persists. Accept everything, don’t resist anything. If you fight against it, it gets stronger.
Resistance feeds what you don't want, it’s powerless without your reaction.
If you resist it with your energy, your energy makes it grow.
Don’t resist evil, immorality or wrong-doings.
Looking at or focusing on the negative, bad, evil, horror, darkness, etc. give energy and power for it to exist. So ignore it to be at peace in ignorance. Ignorance is bliss after all.
Never get angry. Your negative energy feeds and fuels negative energy into the world.
That's the so-called 'philosophy' being put out by some who identify with the terms 'New Age', or 'New Ager', or 'Spiritual'. I said some put it out in this confused manner, not all.
Is it valid?
Not really. The original phrase "what you resist persists" holds some truth, but you have to understand the context of how to apply the phrase, because it doesn't apply willy-nilly to everything blindly, and certainly doesn't apply to how many so-called 'spiritual' people want it to apply.
Correction
We can always look at what we do want, and look at what we don't want to create instead. They are related. Sometimes we can focus on creating what we do want, what is better, and that replaces what we don't want, what is worse. But it's not always the case. Often we h ave to focus and pay attention tot the negatives aspects of reality in order to learn about them and properly deal with them.
Meditating in avoidance, denial and escapism into your inner-world, to have inner-states of calm, peace, wellbeing and "feeling-good" is not a solution to deal with problems in our life or in the world.
A lot of the focus on inner-states of being, inner-peace, wellbeing, calmness, tranquility, etc. of the movements related to positive thinking (New Age, spirituality, etc.) prevent facing the world and doing something about it. Keep calm, don’t take action on yourself or in the world, don’t face your participation in wrongdoings, don’t confront others on their BS, don’t call them out, don’t use the force of action, speech or writing to speak truth into the world. Just focus on yourself.
How does the phrase "what you resist persists" apply correctly?
Accept what 'IS' happening, what is currently happening and what exists as the current condition. Don't resist the existence of what is currently happening. That doesn't mean to not resist what is happening. It doesn't mean to accept it and let it be.
If we resist, deny or ignore the truth, reality or existence of what is currently happening, then we can't do anything about it. It will persist because we let it persist, because we don't do anything about it, because we don't want to see that it is happening, because we don't want to accept that it is happening.
The real meaning of this phrase is to accept what is currently the actuality in reality, and then you can not accept to let it continue to be this way by taking action to do something about it.
Don't resist the existence of what is happening as the current reality, so that you can then resist it from being the reality in the future by taking actions and doing something about it.
As I recently said in another post:
With acceptance of the true state of our current conditions -- not resistance -- we can face reality/truth (what 'is'), and learn to overcome those horrors we fear, those demons, darkness, shadow and negatives that are a part of our individual inner-lives and collective outer-lives.
Accept the current existence of all the true ways and false ways, truth/lies, beauty/horror, good/bad, as the current condition that is manifested individually in our personal lies or collectively as the condition of the planet overall. Then things can change if we want to take action to change them.
Not facing the truth about reality allows it to continue and run us over in the end. Not resisting and accepting everything blindly is not a solution to change things in the world or in our lives.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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yeah, you should resist negative and bad thoughts of your, which can be harmful to you or for others.
You should make yourself powerful enough to oppose you doing evil.
I believe that our world, technically advanced, but spiritually hungry, experiences a deep disillusionment with the well-being that does not erase its poverty, the freedom that does not remove its slavery and the science that does not clear its deep uncertainty.
About thirty years ago, a cultural / philosophical / religious wave has been forming that aims to react against the present state of humanity and to push humanity towards a new consciousness.
The ideas and objectives of the New Age include elements of Eastern religions, spiritualism, alternative therapies, transpersonal psychology, deep ecology, astrology, Gnosticism and other currents. He mixes them and markets them in a thousand ways, proclaiming the beginning of a new era for humanity.
There are valid and good things about the "New Age" movement, but lots of false understanding as well.
"It will persist because we let it persist"
Exactly. The only Truth lies within onself. When we follow external beliefs we'll eventually play victim and blame others for our misery. "I didn't want that in the first place" is the common mindset then. Everything is happening against us, not for us. Yet nothing can ever happen to us unless we give our consent. "Acceptance creates Harmony", as it goes.
I too agree on the escapism of negativity within spiritual communities. In fact, meditating for me has never been something to avoid negativity. Instead, meditating brought forth inner fears and deeply buried emotions so that they could finally be released. Here again, Acceptance was key. I would wake up in the middle of the night and literally feel how my body released density and my body became lighter.
The escapism from negativity is a temporary result of heightened sensitivity to simply give that signal: stop listening to others, YOU have to know what is true for you and what not.
Great article! Keep it up ;)
Well, not really... you can get assaulted, raped, or stuff stolen, and you didn't give consent... :/
As difficult as it might seem to understand, our Soul wants these experiences for the learning to raise its vibration. Balancing lifetimes, when were in the perpetrator role one life, we'll experience the victim role in another. All contributing to our Soul's learning. But again, these concepts are quite intricate, and we'll resonate or not.
Thanks for your comment! :)
What you deny, you empower.
Very true.
There was a movie with Jim Carrey, "Yes Man". It's an attitude everyone should try once and again :)
i feel it necessary to resist negative things
I concur with what you have said. Resteemed.
The statements around meditation / inner reflection seem to make some false assumptions about the nature of the practice (apparently the writer does not meditate, therefore may not be entirely qualified to assert such presumptions)
"Meditating in avoidance" is an oxymoron and this would not be meditation by definition. Meditation and mindfulness are the practice of observing reality without reacting instinctively, in order to discern the reality outside of the meditators own judgements - this is not the same thing as passive denial of reality, nor avoidance of taking action, but to the contrary, taking a position for clearminded action with integrity.
Notice, "meditation in avoidance" is not the same as "meditation is avoidance". Meditation used in avoidance... Thanks.
A very key descernment!
A lot of people use this phrase just to get away from their problems for a while. However, it means experiencing what's actually happening, getting through the feelings and then acting on from the lessons you gathered in order to change your condition for the better.