It's "cease" to do evil - not "conquer"

From my earliest years, I heard the admonition -  "Conquer evil!"  That we have to first conquer evil in order to then truly do good.  And that made a lot of sense to me.  Subjugate the hells in order for the heavens to triumph.  Except, it turns out, the reality isn't quite as straighforward.  We CAN cease to do evil;  we can't conquer evil.  Not only can't, but putting serious effort into the attempt can boomerang, doing more harm than good.

One of the very first books I read in my search for saner living was Taming Your Gremlin, by Rick Carson.   This would have been around 1985, when my life was precariously balance between professional satisfaction & family frustrations.  (Years before the arrival of one of the most balanced, emotionally healthy & whole humans on the planet - John Richard Murphy, aka "my John." )

As much as I'd love to quote from it extensively, my copy is nowhere to be found - probably lent to someone who hopefully lent it yet another somebody.  A pity, since the book was the basis of many an interesting breakfast discussion between Mom (equally raised with the charge to conquer evil) and moi.

While a lot of Rick talks about is old hat to folks in 2015, back in 1984, when the book was first published, and in 1990, when I first read it, it was brand new thinking.  Your greatest obstacle to happiness is the voice inside your head?  Radical stuff back then!  

 

Three key things to know about the gremlin in our head:  a) it has only one purpose - to make us miserable;  b)  the more we attack it in an attempt to conquer it, the stronger IT gets; and c) we can't get rid of it anyway - it's here to stay.

Sounds hopeless.  At least it's hopeless as long as we're dedicated to utterly vanquishing it - not going to happen.  Our gremlin is in our head to stay.  But Rick shares the key to mollifying that pesky gremlin, hell-bent on making us miserable ~  notice it, give it a tip of our hat, AND MOVE ON.  Move past it to better things.  DO NOT ATTACK IT - the more we fight our gremlin, the more power we give it.  Stop.  Notice it, give it a tip of your hat, move on.  Simple, but not easy.

Definitely life changing.  Could see the wisdom of Rick's message.  "Ceasing" doesn't conjure up the same images of mighty forces at work that "conquering" does.  Conquering is BIG, ceasing is small.  Small, but mighty.     

1. No war zone: Our saboteur(s) are here to stay so don’t try to fight or battle with them.  Acknowledgement is key.
2. Personification: The saboteur(s) get smaller and more manageable when we name it, claim it, and describe it
3. Sandbox: When you recognize that the saboteur(s) has shown up, simply tell it to go play somewhere else.
4. Values: When we focus on our strengths and values, there is no room for the saboteur(s), and they quickly fade into the distance.
- See more at: http://www.thecoachesbookclub.com/2012/05/11/book-2-taming-your-gremlin-by-rick-carson-introduction-chapter-1-the-essentials/#sthash.IA7ZBpBc.dpuf

Look over Tips from the Gremlin Tamer - none of them are big & flashy;  they're all small, doable for even the most fledgling Gremlin Tamer.  Several of my favorites are: 

• Breathe! Your breathing is both a barometer and a regulator of your level of contentment.
• Simply Notice. Notice your thoughts, feelings, fantasies, memories and assumptions and notice that the Natural You is not any of these.
• Your past is not attached to you. You may be holding onto it. But it is not holding on to you.
• When you're not sure what to say, consider saying, "I'm not sure what to say."  

To this day, 30+ years after first reading Rick's book, it's still HARD to practice the simple thought that awareness & choice are primary to noticing.  The lesson has been learned, but too rarely practiced!  It's so much easier to just not be aware, unable to make a wiser choice.  Oblivion.

Turns out that simply noticing - the KEY step to taming our gremlin - is about as simple as it gets.  It takes effort to put my attention somewhere other than on the person or task or opportunity right in front of me.  But twisted training's made it much tougher than it naturally is, my gremlin does everything possible to divert my attention anywhere other than where I am. Remember remember remember - "Simply noticing requires effort, not strain."  Powerful things can happen when we chose to be curious, to see what's happening, rather than critical & all-conquering.

Simply notice evil, do good.  Maybe that's what should be taught.  Notice the evil, choose the good.  Here it is, 33 years after first reading about gremlins, and mine still controls a shock portion of my actions than is swayed by the Natural Me, the real self born for fabulous things!

Am grateful to be reminded, at this precise moment in my so-called existence, of Taming the Gremlin.  As much as it spoke to me, am tremendously aware of the fact I totally blew off one of its most crucial messages - the importance of mindfulness exercises in effectively dealing with our gremlin.  That & reducing the clutter in my life - the two things my very powerful gremlin does everything possible to keep me from practicing.  Interesting.  Notice - tip my hat - move on.  MOVE ON.  Do the thing my gremlin is black heart-set against.  Feel the power of the gremlin, experience it, recognize it - then tip my hat & move on.

DOING mindfulness work/breathing exercises, reducing the clutter currently filling my e-mail box & house & car trunk, taking my new laptop OUT of its box & getting help learning how to use Windows 10, reclaiming my cyber access savvy then moving forward with Cyber Access for the Technically Timid.   

Notice the gremlin throwing up every barrier possible to keep each of these from becoming reality; notice it & give it a tip of my hat, moving on to practice practice practice the lessons about gremlin training first learned long ago.  It's never too late to cease to do evil, then to do good!

 

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