Habitual Reaching

Not justifying everything that’s done creates the slightest of cracks in your habitual armor. This allows a sliver of awareness to make a difference in the way things are looked at…

Awareness can be described as noticing the different mental factors that arise in each moment. It doesn’t prevent what arises or what happens, but it can lessen the habitual reactions and some of the consequences associated with what arises; but only if there’s awareness and no attachment. Nothing inherently on its own causes problems for anyone. Alcohol has never poured itself down someone’s throat, it has to be reached for. Heroin never forced anyone to put a needle in their arm, same reaching. It’s the individual alone who reaches for something; this goes for anything. Granted most of this self harming reaching is done habitually, but I do what I do today to try and shed light on this. I know a thing or two about this habitual reaching because I did it for forty nine years.

So many things habitually controlled me, and until there was awareness of this, the habitual reaching continued its onslaught of control. How this reaching gets habitually ingrained is by justifying everything that’s done. From pointing out the faults of others, to being nasty to people, slander, and so many other justified behaviors, all they do is keep the conditioned habit of reaching in place. Aware this is being done is the first step in breaking the chains of habitual reaching. Stop looking out there for answers, stop blaming and talking about others. In other words stop justifying everything you do as being right and the slightest of cracks may be created in your habitual armor which will allow a sliver of awareness in to change the way you look at things. After all, if the way you habitually look at things doesn’t change, the conditioning of habitual reaching will remain…