Q: I have difficulty with difficulty! I seem to perceive life as difficult, with everything becoming a mission to be overcome, successfully. I keep thinking I’m doing things wrong and it prevents me from really enjoying life.
John: Any time that you have a problem with something it is because you, within, are out of alignment with what you truly are. As soon as you have a problem, within, then you have taken control when you don’t need it.
Q: Is there ever a time for control?
John: Control is totally misunderstood. Control is not to be gained: it’s to be let go of. As long as you have a problem, you are still trying to gain control because your own survival and your own safety are still worth more than anything else. To value control by way of keeping it, wanting it or needing it is you putting your own way at a premium.
Q: I did a course recently where ‘responsibility' was a big word.
John: There are not any problems outside of you. Someone cannot be your problem, regardless of what they are doing to you. A circumstance cannot be your problem, regardless of what it seems to be doing to you.
The only problem that can possibly exist is just you. When you are a problem, then you find problems all around you. When all problems are finally realized to be just you, then your final problem can very gently pass away. Then there is not an issue that exists in you anymore.
Any time that you experience a problem, you’re experiencing your judgment of yourself outside of your self. Any problem outside of your self reveals only what you are running away from within you. It reveals the patterns within you and the patterns within your mind that you refuse to face.
Problems cannot be solved until they are all first, very gently, reduced to being just you. When you are very gentle with that last problem, then that gentleness replaces the problem. Gentleness replaces you. It replaces the you that you are used to being in this world.
Q: I think it is a scary thing to just be me.
John: It’s only scary to be what is really you as long as your value of control is that of keeping it. When your value of control is that of letting go of it, then being what is really you is pure goodness. It has in it absolutely no fear.
Q: Well, I have fear of losing control – big time!
John: Very gently let go of your need to control, and love replaces fear.
