The radical nature of choosing peace not pain

When we make a decision to choose peace rather than suffering we make a radical choice that is totally at odds with the game being played in this culture. As we continue to identify who we are with our minds (our thoughts, emotions, mental processes and so on), we trap ourselves in psychological time and continue the wheel of suffering. I use the wheel image because the mind is very much like a hampster wheel. It turns and turns and the hampster can't get off (well, he may choose to stay on...there again solidifying my point!). The mind simply has no off switch. But in making a decision to remain present and to observe the mind dispassionately, we begin the process of short-circuiting the involuntary process of mind energizing and identification. We make no attempt to stop the mind, but expose the limited circuity of the ego in it's need to be in past or future time. Because we are so invested in this reality, living in the phantom, we resist deeply the decision to watch the mind from the point of view of "the watcher". When we "watch" we "see", and when we "see" we reveal who we really are to ourselves, the ultimate I AM. We leave the limitations of reactive perception and join the realm of timeless presence. This is our actual nature. This is what and who we are. But we are invested in the pain-body as it runs it's automated daily activity. Watch it. It cannot continue to live in the light. It is helpless before the light. This is the end of suffering. But it is very very threatening to our sense of ego identity that we have built up and will leave us to the degree of our identification with time.