That Which You Resist…Persists

Are you repeatedly struggling with the same issue, no matter how hard you have worked to ignore, avoid, run away from or change it? You may have noticed in the past that you could simply push something away and you seemed to be rid of it. Or were you really rid of it?

The truth is, the more you push something, the more it comes back-now or later. This is Isaac Newton’s third law, which provides the theory of relationship between the forces acting on a body and the motion of the body. This physics and metaphysical law is often summed up as: “That which you resist persists.”

Furthermore, resistance tends to strengthen the opposing energy by giving it power and energy to work against-credence. Resistance keeps one from learning more about what one resists. To fully understand anything, one needs to be open to it, to the degree that one knows its energy, otherwise one remains ignorant of its purpose for showing up in one’s life. The story of a Tibetan monk who retreated to meditate in a cave only to discover he was faced with demons clearly explains this phenomenon. He did everything he could think of-hiding, chasing, fighting, ignoring-to get the demons to leave or at least leave him along, but nothing worked. He then decided to learn what he could about them and then they disappeared.

This same wisdom can be applied to anyone’s circumstance or situation. This story conveys the truth that our demons are inside. What plagues and pursues us on an inner level has a way of manifesting itself in our reality as people, events and issues that seemingly are beyond our control. As the monk learned once you face your demons they disappear. Ergo the axiom, “We met the enemy and he is us.”

Bottom-line…

“What we resist will persist.” This is true in that nothing changes until it’s fully accepted. Example: An “angry person” will not change until he/she allows him/herself to be angry. Nothing will change if this person says to him/herself “Now I must not be so angry anymore.” This is resistance and will drive the issue in deeper. Resistance will in other words cause the anger (in the case of my example) to persist. In fact, the problem is perpetuated by fights against it.

So Eckhart Tolle continually says “Allow” “Accept” “Let things be as they are”. Things will then begin to change on their own. But you may as well not attempt to be passive in order to get control that way. That’s just trying to do passively what you haven’t been able to do actively (and is what the mind will do to hopefully remain in control). Radical acceptance is just that – allowing matters to go in the direction they need to and not being invested in the outcome of things. There’s no need to attempt to control outcomes. You are that FREE.