Reality and The Rift (Part 1)

Reality is the actual events and circumstances that occur…not how we interpret these events and circumstances. It is simply the facts, and nothing else. It is not our interpretation of the facts.

Our interpretation of what happens is based on our judgments, which creates our personal “story”. It is this story that we confuse with reality.

We have 4 common responses to “Reality”:

1. We Hold On To The “Bad”

   From actual events or circumstances, we create a “story” that involves all that we interpret to be painful or undesirable. We then hold on to this story and what we judge to be negative. We cling to it with every recurring thought, feeling, and action. Simultaneously, we compare our “story” to an ideal of some kind to prove to us why our “negative” story exists.

   2 Rifts are formed when we do this: The Rift between Reality and our story, and the Rift between Reality and our ideal.

2. We Hold On To The “Good”

   From actual events or circumstances, we create a “story” that involves all that we interpret to be pleasurable and desirable. We then hold on to this story and what we judge to be positive. We cling to it with every recurring thought, feeling, or action. Simultaneously, we hold this “story” as an ideal of some kind to prove to us why our “positive” story exists.

   2 Rifts are formed when we do this: The Rift between Reality and our story, and the Rift between Reality and our ideal.

3. We See The “Bad”, But We Cling To The “Good”

   From actual events or circumstances, we create a story involving only the negative and undesirable. In complete resistance to the “negative”, we quickly create a “story” that involves only what we interpret to be pleasurable and desirable. We then hold on to this new “positive” story, and cling to it with every recurring thought, feeling and action. Simultaneously, we resist the experience of our first “negative” story. We then reverberate between the experience of our “negative” and “positive”.

   2 Rifts are formed when we do this: The Rift between Reality and our stories, and the Rift between Reality and our ideal.

4. We Hold Both The “Bad” And The “Good”

   From actual events or circumstances, we create a “negative story” with what we interpret as painful and a “positive story” with what we interpret as pleasurable. We then experience both “stories” equally and utilize both to create an ideal, which is the balance of both “stories”. Or we see only the events themselves (without personal interpretation) and balance them against some kind of ideal. These events and circumstances become part of the ideal.

   1 Rift is formed when we do this. The Rift between Reality and our ideal.

The Rift: The gap between the actual events, circumstances or facts and what we hold in its place. Or, the gap between life as it is and life as we imagine it to be.

“Be aware of Reality, if not, there can be dangerous outcomes”.

“Beware of Rifts for rifts can be dangerous places”.

Remember...