The Prison Of Resentment or The Key to A Bright Future

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I would've called this "The prison of Resentment"

The author, my guru Roy Masters, calls it "The Key to a bright future"

http://www.fhu.com/popups/brightfuture.html
The Key to a Brigh Future
By Roy Masters
If you possessed a time machine that enabled you to see into the future, so that you could actually glimpse the outcome of your own decisions before you ever made them, guess what -- you would still make the same mistakes. A time machine would not give you the advantages you think it would.

Why? Despite your "advance knowledge" of the future, your old conditioning and programming would cause you inevitably to make the same errors you have always made.

You see, no matter how much we know about the future, that future cannot be positive for us unless we change what we are and where we are "coming from" -- because where we are coming from, spiritually speaking, is where we are going.

No need for a time machine; you already have the gift of insight and its power to bring paradise to earth -- one perfectly managed moment at a time. Each moment is a dimensional threshold you can successfully "cross" simply by your instant recognition of any truth, pleasant or painful. This article is all about not missing that moment.

Common sense should tell you that a life of meaning and happiness is dependent on making right choices. But being able to make right choices requires that we find an objective "altitude" - a conscious awareness that's perched above the confusing whirlpool of thought and feeling within each of us. This "altitude" amounts to a truly positive attitude, because it enables us to separate from something powerfully destructive but poorly understood by most - namely resentment.

Resentment is the mysterious "catalyst" that mingles any hurt we may happen to experience with the infection of hate, and taints true love with the poison of lust. It is the extra ingredient that, when added to normal experience and emotion, turns it toxic.

Surely you can dislike chocolate ice cream without hating it -- or can you? Most people do not know how to like or dislike anything without emotionally entangling themselves with the love-hate object.

The reason for this imbalance, once again, is resentment, something we all take for granted as a normal emotion. But not only is it not normal, a closer look at resentment will reveal that it is not really an emotion at all. It's an energy - in fact, resentment is the "life-breath" of the life of pride. As such, it causes the corruption of all of our natural sentiments.

Resentment and doubt give rise to one another. Doubting the truth automatically generates emotional upset and resentment. On the other hand, falling to resentment draws the soul away from the trusting heart, which causes yet another frustration (resentment), which in turn builds on and enlarges the original doubt. Perhaps you can now glimpse why, under the spell of emotion, people cannot make right decisions.

Remember William Penn's famous quote? "Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants." The reason for this is that resentment steals our natural, sovereign control over ourselves - that is, our inner-connectedness with our Creator -- and transfers that connection to the outer realm of people, places and things and gives them the power to shape us.

Lost in an endless loop of tormenting thought and useless mental clutter, we can never see, let alone avoid, life's hidden reefs and traps. We are drawn to "love" and "friendship" in all the wrong places, because viewing life through the peculiar prism of resentment, enemies appear to be friends and true friends appear to be enemies.

In this confused, doubtful, resentful state of mind and soul, we're constantly "lost in our heads," unable to cope with life's stresses. We worry constantly, ruminating on the past and future like a herd of cows mindlessly chewing their cud.

Reaction changes outcome
As long as we continue to view and respond to the present through the bitter judgments of yesterday's eyes, we miss the proper response to each new moment, and we fail to bring into existence the beautiful future that might have been.

Clarity is what you need, and clarity is what you get when you drop resentment.

When you were a little child, you may have been acutely aware of the madness around you. But injustice (in another person) saw you watching, and then injustice made you do what it has always done to destroy the faith of little children; it tempted you to become resentful so you would lose the bright light of faith, and fall into doubt.

The nature of doubt, energized by resentment, has accompanied you since childhood. That is what has slowly but surely been taking command of your impulses all of your life.

Intuition tells you not to go here or there. It exhorts you to endure trials patiently and wait for clarity. Were you to heed this noble calling, intuition would manifest as faith in the "substance of things hoped for" and become the "evidence of things unseen" (Hebrews 11:1).

Two possible futures await you, one positive and the other negative, each one a seed containing the shape of everything to come. The sower of the seed of doubt is injustice and the fertile soil to receive it is resentment and unforgiveness.

Heed this warning then: Resentment is the loser's response, summoning into you the nature of doubt, which separates you from God. For this reason, you need to journey into your new future by learning how to catch resentment before you drown in it. Rising above resentment will unblock the intuitive "knowledge of forethought's" creative spirit - that is, the action of the Light of God leading you effortlessly into the future He has laid out for you, one moment at a time. It is just that simple, a matter of natural unfolding from within.

When I say "knowledge of forethought," I don't mean a psychic vision of the future or some other occult knowledge of coming events. Rather, I mean the still, humble, obedient soul that wants nothing more than to do God's will, whatever it may be, is somehow connected intuitively to the future in a way that makes his path clear. This path gives him the understanding or knowledge he needs when the moment demands and that provides him the confidence that he will be able to handle whatever comes.

The Bible puts it this way: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Psalms 119:105)

Many families, psychological and even physical disorders stem from resentment-guided emotions that block the blessings of the "mustard seed" of faith in our lives. Little irritations sustain ancient conditionings and pile up all kinds of puzzling behavioral pathologies -- all from the same cause, but each bearing a different poison fruit with its own scientific label.

Realizing this fact should be instantly sobering. As you emerge from a life based on resentment, the mist of rage clears. As other hidden emotions surface, they too will require the same unhesitating recognition.

Therefore, from this day forward be wise; deal with daily irritations patiently.

Do not say, "I have no resentments, I have forgiven them all," because much resentment lies buried behind a pleasant façade. However, simply dropping resentment and pretense can unravel all.

Instant recognition is pivotal to positive change, beginning with the basic principle of resentment.

The key to a bright future is your willingness, in each precious moment, to be keenly aware of the kind of thoughts and feelings you have in your mind - and especially to become conscious of the ego life-breath called pride and its "handmaiden" and enabler, resentment. Up to this moment in time, resentment has provided you the wrong ego-animal energy to live pridefully. This is also the essence of denial, preventing the inner Light of God from shining as a "lamp unto your feet."

Your willingness to see that your entire miserable life has been built on resentment and judgment opens the portal to a new life, based in a new ground of being, one acceptable to God. For this reason, welcome such revelations, and in doing so do not allow even the tiniest fraction of a second to pass before inwardly admitting the truth.

Hesitate that fraction of a second, and the heavenly vortex will close. Should you fail in this, do not be frustrated. Patiently wait for your next opportunity to come back from sin across the threshold of life.

Forbearing resentment, a strong bond will form with intuitive "knowledge of forethought."

To get above the fray, there is no need stoop to abusive anger and to do to others before they do it to you. Patient endurance will neutralize that hellish evolution of misery.

The patience of faith is an unfelt power. It involves no effort or struggle of wills. Just be unto others as you would have them be unto you, which is to say, endlessly patient, forbearing to respond with any resentment towards whatever befalls you.

The sincerity of your heart makes possible the instant recognition of where your journey must begin.

Now, drop the losers' response and receive the Grace to win by not losing - by not falling to resentment and doubt.

A wise old Indian chief once told his braves that inside him he had two wolves fighting for supremacy -- one called love and the other hate. When asked which one was winning, he answered: "The one I feed."