Just as someone desperate to get out of debt can easily fall prey to shady creditors, so too a mind that is desperate to solve its problems can easily fall prey to delusion.
The self-help world is full of delusion. “7 Weeks to Healthy Self-Esteem.” “5 Easy Steps to Better Relationships.” The subtext is: let’s get this done quickly. The deeper subtext is: You aren’t lovable till you fix this, so you better fix this fast. Now here’s the billing form.
What is delusion? It’s the substitution of an image, story, or concept for real change. Delusion latches onto a picture of how things could be without understanding the process of getting there. And delusion always sells, both in the marketplace and in the mind.
You know you’re caught in delusion when you’re stuck on what I call one of the Two F’s: (1) trying to fix yourself or (2) trying to figure yourself out.
Trying to fix yourself is delusion, because you aren’t broken. You may have had a bad childhood or bad experience, but that past is gone, and it’s only your habit of clinging to something in the present that causes you pain. That present can be very hard to see.
Trying to figure yourself out is delusion, because your thinking mind cannot understand suffering or how to let it go. The thinking mind can only spin stories — hence the phrase, “Analysis paralysis.” The deeper wisdom that knows how to let go can also be hard to find.
And so wisdom will always be slow, not because it’s laborious (actually, liberating insight happens in a finger snap) but because getting into *position* to truly notice your experience can take years.
One day, you will hear the same teaching for the thousandth time, and it will go straight to your heart, as the Thais say. But you can’t rush that day. You can only guard against impatience, the true enemy of wisdom. As my friend says: Enlightenment, but maybe not tonight.
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