Page 456 - THE SILENT HEALING POWER By DR. MURDO MACDONALD-BAYNE

WHY DO WE STRUGGLE?*

“Peace I leave to you, my peace I give to you;

I give it not as the world gives its ‘Peace!’ Let
not your hearts be disquieted or timid.” John l4: 27

When we begin to discern the activities of the mind, we find that there is

a continuous struggle with opposites which means only one thing—frustration.
With most there is a continuous struggle through reactions to conditions
and circumstances that surround them. This is common in all shades of life, the

rich, the poor, the educated and the uneducated, the great and the small.
We have the idea of health but struggle with ill-health, we have the
idea of plenty but struggle with lack. We hold the idea of success while we

struggle with failure. We hold the idea of freedom while we struggle with
our conditioning, we hold the idea of good while we struggle with evil.
While this conflict goes on, we create a greater burden. When one

struggle is over another begins, our minds are filled with the effects of our
struggle and therefore are incapable of true direction. How can this turmoil
come to an end? That is the question. But the answer does not come because
we are caught up in the struggle.

When we rebel against anything we struggle, do we not? So we react
to our conditioning because we are conditioned. Nothing external to us has
any power of its own. So the trouble lies within ourselves. We have lost our

God-given power of dominion.
On the other hand, if we understood the cause we would not rebel
but work from within to remove the cause. The cause can only be removed
when we understand ourselves, our cravings, our desires, our antagonisms,

our greed, our jealousies etc., etc., and how they come about.
The Presence is always present and there is no such thing as lack,
no evil or ill-health, hate and the like, in the Presence; and the Presence is

the only Reality, and all there is. Then how do these things come into being?
When this is known struggle ceases.
The problem is then ourselves. But how can we dispense with this

self that is the cause of all this misery? We can only do this by seeing how
false the self is, with all its make-up which is illusionary. It is the illusion of
the self that must be dissolved through deep discernment of what it is.

* See Notes page 459
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