What You Resist Persists

My angel Deanna e-mailed me a document in 2003 with a bunch of rules for living.

One of the rules in that list that has stuck in my memory over the years is this one:

What you resist persists.

I want to know if this resonates for anyone, and how valid you think this is as a rule for living. I would love to see some examples from people's lives, either supporting or refuting this rule.

Namaste.

 

I have some rules for living myself- that include different things that are Not necessarily included in the Bible, or any other place. so, I can really relate to what you are saying...

Anyway, "What you resist persists" really, really resonates w/ me, and found that Not fighting, but actually embracing that which I have resisted makes my life Imminently Easier, more peaceful, etc...
My example is: As early as I can remember I wanted to be married, with 2 kids, the picket fence, and all. Being a ballerina was a Far second...anyway, I was married for a total of 4 years, and was Really Out There for many, many years - always thinking that my Soul Mate Was Just Around The Corner. 10 years ago I thought I'd met The One - and it lasted me about 1 1/2 years, and then he left.
I thought I would lose my mind, and having my son is really the only reason that I am still here in flesh on this earth. However, I Did not lose it and have literally found peace that passeth understanding - BUT I do know that what you have said is true..
My father died when I was not quite 5 years old (I still recall this) and my mother Never dated and even though we had some family, it was always my mother, my brother and me. I resisted being this, living this with Everything in me - but it did not work.
My peace and understanding of Everything has so changed since I embraced what I feel is my destiny, I cannot tell - As of 2000, I embarked on what I feel is the 2nd part of me...and what you resist persists (And will kill you and/or make you crasy) is an excellent rule to remember.

 

I think the "funniest" (and not haha) thing about all that ^ (what you resist persists) is that whatever it is you are resisting WILL NOT quit - ever - persisting. It just won't bother you when you make peace with it, and quit resisting.
Hope that made some sense to you

 

Lynnbrown, I think perhaps you might be a connection I was looking for.

The second part of you...I'm experiencing the second part of me...well, maybe the third or fourth, but who's counting?

It's a hard thing to finally grasp. It's something my spirit guide Deanna has been trying so hard for so long to get me to accept, and I think it might finally be starting to sink in...

"Will not quit -ever..." Yes. I feel that the experience never stops - but my reaction to the experience changes from resistance to acceptance. Eventually...

It seems to be largely divesting the ego of its attachments.

It was around 2000 or so, for me also, that my life reached its new phase.

Thank you Lynnbrown - it helps so much to share.

 

Why thank you, Zengizmo, for those kind words.

Also, I am quite interested in anything that your spirit guides and/or angels have imparted to you.

I feel strongly that we (dumb-butt) people are given access to a "higher spiritual power", if only we will Choose it And Heed what we are told.
I don't think perfection is really expected for any of us here; but, They would/He would need to see at least some effort. Does that make sense?

 

I just asked my spirit guide Deanna if she needs to at least see some effort, and she just laughed her head off.

Here's what she does with me: When I'm pissed or insecure, she ignores my e-mails or else replies with something that challenges my equanimity. When I'm cheerful she tends to send me more frequent e-mails with little emotionally gratifying gifts in them. I think this method is known in psychology as operant conditioning. As far as telling me things that I need to heed - well, she doesn't tell me a hell of a lot. She mainly just throws out tests for me.

Like for example: A couple weeks ago she started mentally harrassing me while I was relaxing with a computer game. She would send me unpleasant sensations, give me fake feelings of extreme sadness, and other crap like that. I mainly tried to ignore her, or said things to her in my mind like, "Having fun?" or "Do you have too much time on your hands today?" Eventually she stopped the crap and sent me more pleasant sensations. I noticed that she had stopped, and thought about how I had handled it, and I realized she had been testing me. I thought about how I might have handled it a year ago. "You would have been very bad," she said in my mind, and laughed.

So I don't know if effort is necessarily needed - in fact, I sort of think effort is counter-productive. The spirits put us through shit over and over, and eventually something in us clicks and we just start being okay with the shit. When I TRY to be "good," the spirits start hammering me until I lose my temper - it's like they're telling me I can't do it by trying, I just need to wait until my experiences change me.

This is why I have major issues with religious types who insist that you need to do such and such or so and so, or you're just not a good person. BS. God changes us through our experiences, and it's pointless to try to be something we're not - we just need to be as much as possible who we really are in order to experience what we need to become who we're becoming.

So there you are - another fiery sermon from Rev. zengizmo.

 

See, and I not only Big with that - but I found it most informative.
I am spiritual, not necessarily "religious", and discover different ways to do
and/or be on a regular basis. The only thing I can say for sure that has not changed with me, except for to get stronger is my faith.
And - I think that with true faith, first comes a Lot of testing and questioning. You might say I've put it to the test through these (what feel like Many) years.:cheers2:

 

I have just got to ask you this:
Do you receive e-mails from a source that is unknown, untraceable, etc with the return being the angel? I am NOT being sarcastic at all - I am most curious. For I believe there are Many things that Are that are not necessarily explained in a science book - though one day we May have instruments to measure what is now considered "not possible".

 

My angel Deanna has a MySpace profile, and so do I. She currently insists that all our communications must occur via MySpace e-mails. She has numerous photos on her profile, and it's very easy for me to confirm that the person pictured in the photos is my angel and former co-worker Deanna.

I did once receive an e-mail from a source I can't possibly trace or confirm that seemed to be from my angel Deanna, but came to me by way of an untraceable source, and seemed quite cryptic, yet quite appropriate to our relationship at that point in time.

Lynnbrown, it seems to me that you and I are very close in our experiences. We should compare notes - maybe via PM. I sense a highly attuned spiritually oriented vigilance on your part, like mine - like a continual radar scan, always searching for a true and genuine spiritual sign.

 

Radar scan - how Very interesting...

I do have a thing I have called my inner radar that tells me when a person is a Liar Liar Pants on Fire - even when there is Nothing to indicate that...

Time tells all. I have actually Fought (tooth and nail) against my inner radar, much to my regret I must add...so I eventually found it best for everything all around to Listen to my inner radar...

You are a truth teller and seeker, I feel.

(I couldn't help but LOL when I read your suggestion about the PM, Zengizmo, cause - well, you know)

 

there is a truth in everything, seek not, and you shall find..

 

i think resistance is a passive act, its not active. From a technical analogy

a resistor of electricity will continue to resist the electricity till it burns out, or the operator decides to turn it off.

now, if we are the resistor, you can fight the battle where you are and hope that the aggressor decides to bugger off....(in ghandis case this was to the embarrassment of the aggressor) or you can make more decisive action and move the fight to its source

although one must avoid the trap that the resistor, being the object of the aggressor and feeling powerless (hehe) without the meaning of life that is to FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

 

The Gandhi mention is interesting. Gandhi's strategy is termed "passive resistance," and yet it really wasn't exactly passive. Gandhi and his followers actively defied particular laws imposed by the Brits. I suppose the passiveness came in with regard to acts of aggression. When the Brits attacked, the Indians neither resisted the attacks nor counter-attacked.

Fortunately the Brits had some semblance of conscience. Imagine the scenario if, as in a short story I once read, Germany had won WW II, and Gandhi's strategy was being applied toward a Nazi occupation instead of a British one. Of course, being a dark-skinned people, the Indians would have been considered a "non-Aryan race," so the Nazi's might have simply exterminated them.

One wonders what lengths the Nazis might have gone to if there was nothing to stop them...would they eventually have decided it was not a good idea to exterminate the entire world population except for loyal and "pure" Europeans? My guess is that they would have enslaved the rest of the world instead. Taken to its logical conclusion, passive resistance would have required the Indians and others to simply refuse to do the Nazis' bidding, and would have undoubtedly resulted in wholesale slaughter of the resistors. I do believe it would have been unbelievably awful, but if all the enslaved people were determined to see it through, eventually the Nazis would have come to face the ultimate lunacy of what they were doing. Oppressors can only oppress if there are victims to cooperate with the oppression.

But that's the problem, of course. Being resolute in the face of such horror is not easy. I don't think I could do it, and most other people also couldn't do it.

Coming around to the original question again: In the case of Gandhi's movement, what they resisted did NOT persist. So this would seem to be a refutation of the stated principle.

 

seemingly. however the possibility of it happening again remains. so in a sense the mentality that he resisted still remains

 

I have a personal example of this being true. Right before I joined these forums, I had a breakup with a female who I loved dearly. I tried to understand and let her go and just forget her since we tried to be just friends and I didn't see that as a good idea because of many reasons. So I moved on, had a new love in my life and this is after much drama and trying to rid my being of this ex, then after a wonderful weekend with my new found love, I get a bit tipsy call my ex and we hit it off and hang out, then a few days later we have sex and are hanging out all the time now and we are basically back together. My mentality now is fuck it, what ever happens I don't even care anymore and she is pretty much the same bitch as she was the first time around but it feels a bit more solid and I am happy right now. Who knows maybe if we break up again it will be final and swift, I know I won't give two shits either way because I have found a focus in the direction I am taking my life, I found that when I was in bed with her and I don't mind her being there, but I feel way better now with her than I did before, and I actually trust her like I used to, which was a surprise to me. I apologize for the long rant but I hope somebody got something out of it. I guess in summary, some things will not go away until it is really time, no matter how much you want them to, if they did you may miss out on what was really meant to be a wonderful experience.

 

To me that strikes on a core human struggle. between momentum of past actions and a desire for difference circumstances.

We as individuals can choose, for sure there will be resistance from your past actions. But a life without pain? a life without choice? isn't that what the machine wants...

 

truth unfolds itself with a clean perception of the mind

 

sex is is often resisted, so the rapist persists, i guess

 

It's a fascinating question and one i've been pondering for the last few weeks, so when someone sais "What you resist persists" ...what are they really saying? What does it mean? Many times in my life i've kicked myself for not asking at the time ... "What do you mean by that?" - Because everything is open to interpretation.

Yes this core to this: our conditioning and responding from our conditioning. Do we even remember that we have a choice? because if we respond to events and circumstances purely out of habit then we are not choosing but being led by compulsion.
Shit happens ... and it will happen whether we resist or not resist. Can we accept a bad situation and be at peace with what is, until that situation comes to a natural end (because change is inevitable ... everything passes) or until we remove ourselves from it? Likewise can we accept the natural end of a good situation without clinging to it ...to the past? Can we enjoy a pleasant situation knowing fully that is will pass? Can we be present in the now? Mentally free from past and future ... because the issue with resistance is one of thinking and what we tell ourselves about any situation ... like i said events and situations may well happen anyway despite our mental interpretation of them ... which is usually based on past experience anyway.
So, resistance is in the mind. We either accept a difficult situation and be at peace with it until things end or improve or change, or we don't and be unhappy, going over and over in our thoughts about how bad it is.
Accepting a situation and dropping the mental resistance is usually the magic needed for the situation to change anyway ... one of those mysterious laws of the universe that simply teaches acceptance and 'being' ... not to argue with events, with life. Not to say we cannot choose to change a situation or remove ourselves from it ... but to just stop the internal resistance to the present moment ... the arguing, complaining, dissatisfaction.

There's something Krishna Murti said which i like which was "I don't mind what happens to me." and to me that means he is not mentally resisting what happens, he is not identifying who he is with the circumstances he finds himself in, ... not taking anything personally, he is deriving his sense of self from a mutch deeper place where there is no separation and consequently ... no fear.

 

liquidlight, beautiful articulation, as always.

Supposing that we "accept" that the exhortation is true in the way you articulated it, how does one go about being okay with something that seems impossible to accept? I've been struggling with this for ten years now, and I just can't seem to manage it, except sporadically for a few days at a time, at the most, and even then I know there are barely conscious undercurrents of resistance in me. Any thoughts?

Today I just gave it up altogether and pissed myself off major big time, as so often happens...