Force is vulnerable to an infinite number of oppositions, but power has no possible opposite or enemy. Like space itself, power is immune to attack and forever invulnerable. People think that they are ruled by their unruly minds and that they are the victims of circumstances. This sums up how a person feels from moment to moment. People see themselves as victims of their stream of consciousness or feeling states and transitory circumstances. The prevailing view is that there are no options to one’s current state of mind and feeling tone or emotions.
This succumbing to ‘it’ (the mind) and ‘out there’ (the world) is accepted as natural and normal. Few people suspect that there is actually any other option. By self-examination and inward focus, one can discover that all states of consciousness are the result of the execution of an option. They are not unchangeable certainties determined by uncontrollable factors at all. This can be discovered by examining how the mind works.
… One is not ‘forced’ to feel resentment by a negative memory, nor does one have to buy into a fearful thought about the future. These are only options. The mind is like a television set running its various channels for selection, and one does not have to follow any particular temptation of thought. One can fall into the temptation of feeling sorry for oneself, or angry, or worried. The secret attraction of all these options is that they offer an inner payoff or a secret satisfaction which is the source of the attraction of the mind’s thoughts.
If these payoffs are refused, it will be discovered that, at all times, behind the thought screen, there is a silent, invisible, thought-free space of joy. This is an option that is always available, but to be experienced, it has to be chosen above all other tempting options. The source of joy is always present, always available, and not dependent on circumstances. There are only two obstacles: (1) the ignorance that it is always available and present and (2), valuing something other than peace and joy above that peace and joy because of the secret pleasure of the payoff.
The experience of the presence of God is available and within at all times, but awaits choice. That choice is made only by surrendering everything other than peace and love to God. In return, the divinity of the Self reveals Itself as ever present but not experienced because it has been ignored or forgotten, or one has chosen otherwise.”