I think that what's of particular interest to observe is how there can be an ever-present sensation floating around inside, and all the while tainting the perception of the present moment. We've all had times such as this. If one pays closer attention to this inner working, they'll notice that this is going on all the time.

Now, I'm not talking about perception, but rather the inner sensation and feelings that are present which cloud the actual perception of the present moment: the here, the now.

A case in point is the recent personal perception of discontentment that I find myself experiencing. It's not about anything in particular, just about life and existence in general. It's not something that jumps out at me to make itself glaringly obvious, but it's there in my perception of everything during my waking hours, nonetheless.

Let me explain in more details, as I don't think I'm being clear in my sharing.

Have you ever been in a situation that you weren't able to figure out and so you become frustrated and perhaps emotional due to the uncertainty of that situation? Say, something is happening to you or you're involved in some circumstance that perhaps is not to your doing and yet you're not able to remove yourself from that undertaking.

Depending upon the severity of the circumstance you're caught up in, the associated feelings can become rather overwhelming and then begin to taint the perception of what is actually occurring, both outside of you, and inside.

Eventually, the perception of the actuality of what 'is' becomes colored with the perception, and subsequently, the actuality becomes the perception in essence. The actuality of what is isn't perceived differently from the perception. They're now seen as one thing.

The clarity of the actuality of what is is lost to the perception. And then one acts and reacts from that perception, thinking that they're in relationship with what is, but in actuality they're in relationship with their own perception that the actual event was but the initial cause.

Imagine that someone does something to you and this is something that is, in essence, harmless and basically non-impacting overall. You're not physically hurt, just emotionally, or mentally. Your ego is bruised, so to speak.

Once this occurs your mind comes up with all kinds of personalized perceptions of what the actual event was, based on your history and personal happenings to-date. The actual actions of that other become laced with your personalized perception. Then you react from that perception and base your action on what you have now decided is what happened to you.

You are now a victim of yourself, if you are doing that.

Or, to be more clear about this: you're victimizing yourself and you're your own worst enemy at times like this.

You've now become the one who is perpetrating the pain that you perceive is happening to you, and that you're seeing occurring to you and towards you.

And yet, it all started with just a slight misalignment of your perception of what was being perceived and then translated into what was being seen with the mind's eye.

But, it doesn't have to be this way. I know that we all think that we know what is happening is actually what is happening. But, as you can see, if you'll reread what was written above, that the truth of this sequence of events is consistently expressed throughout our days.

Now, mind you, this is not always about so-called 'bad feelings' like jealousy, or victim-hood, or anger, hatred, frustration and gloom. No.

It can also be about 'good feelings' like joy, elation, happiness, comfort, contentment, and seriousness. I know these are not all feelings, per se, but you get my point. And, these may not even be perceived as good by some. They might be seen as undesirable, depending upon the temperament of the person doing the feeling.

I find it rather coincidental that recently I've come across multiple readings and discussions and events in my life to support and clarify this happening of events inside each of us each day. We're all trying to figure out what feelings are okay to feel, and what feelings are to be avoided, because they're perceived as undesirable or bad, so to speak.

Some will tell us that we shouldn't worry about any feelings, as we're focusing on the wrong part of the occurrence. Some tell us that we shouldn't focus on anything that is occurring in the occurrence, both inside and outside of us.

Other's state that we're not even what is occurring, we're merely a vessel through which everything passes.

Personally, I like the words that one of my favorite inner development teachers, Vernon Howard, shared during a talk way back in 1987:

"You must believe nothing; you must know everything. So right now, you can begin to know something that is both startling and very edifying - esoterically educational. And here it is, given to you very directly. It doesn't make any difference at all how you feel. It doesn't make any difference whether you're happy or unhappy, depressed, or elated, excited or bored. I am telling you something that you don't know quite how to take yet and understand, but take it as a fact. Just do that much, and you can do that.

I'm telling you the truth, that you have made a great mistake in thinking that it's important how you feel and so you try to manipulate your moods in order to feel what you call a good feeling and avoid what you call the bad feelings, but it just doesn't happen. They are stronger than you are in your present state of misunderstanding of life.

Let's go at it again, like a knight with a lance toward the enemy. You can be just completely unconcerned from now on with your feelings, with your emotions, with those surges of feeling mournful, of feeling pessimistic, of feeling grouchy. No matter what the feeling is, you really, that means in reality, have nothing to do with it. You just think you do and having made that enormous blunder, thinking that you're supposed to control your emotions, that you're supposed to kick out the bad ones and invite the new ones. Believing in that, now you're caught up in an impossible task and wherever you look, everybody is trying to feel good because they feel bad and their feeling good is as bad as the feeling good.

There is nothing more important for your spiritual growth than for you to know that you are not your feeling."

But, when one is a victim of their perception, their feelings, and their thoughts, does any of this matter? Well, only if it is remembered and the dynamic that is occurring which is individual to the person in the midst of the occurrence is being seen for what it is.

You see, getting away from potentially being so obtuse about this sharing: we're doing this victimization to ourselves.

First we're creating the perception of what is happening, and then we're labelling what that perception is. It doesn't matter what that labelling is: what feeling or sensation it is that we tell ourselves we're in the midst of. We're all just being our own worst victim by participating in this victim mentality dynamic as we do. We're simply doing the worst thing for ourselves that we could be doing.

So, what is it that we could be doing that would be more supportive of our true needs? Well, for starters, we could begin to see that we're not what we label ourselves at that moment. This too doesn't need particular identification with consideration of the many expressions that are possible through the many iterations that we go through during our days. We don't need to concern ourselves with whether what we're feeling is 'good' or 'bad' or 'right' or 'wrong'.

We simply need to know that when we're in this intimate victim-centric dynamic with ourselves that we're being a victim of our personalized handling and interpretation of this event.

So, simply: stop.

Stop everything. And, I mean everything, including the victim mentality dance that occurs inside.

Do you really stop it though? No, you can't, not right now. But you can take steps toward the stopping.

How? Well, like was just written: stop. And then replace the stopping with seeing.

You see, you first have to see what is occurring before you can know when it is occurring, especially in instances such as this. You need to know that this is occurring, again, and then you stop with anything further regarding the occurring. Now, I don't mean, necessarily that you stop whatever it is that you're involved in. And, hopefully, that this isn't something hurtful to yourself or to others.

But, in the midst of the occurring you simply stop and look at yourself. See what is occurring.

That's it. That's all for now. That's all you really can do right now to change the dynamic of the event, the perception, and the labelling. Until that is seen, when it is occurring, the victim-based behavior won't change.

When it is seen, then it will be being viewed from a different vantage point. From a place in you that is brought into the event that wasn't a part of the event previously. This fresh looking brings an observation of the event that has the capability to actually wipe clean the slate that the event was written on and continued to be played out from.

This can work with anything - any event, as long as one is able to first see that being a victim of their self is not in their best interest at times like this.

Easy? No. But do-able over time.

As Mr. Howard said, "...you are not your feeling."

One can see this and also choose to not be a victim of their feelings, past, and perceptions.

Simply see the dynamic of the victim mentality in yourself and you'll stop being a victim of yourself.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

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(Casey, thank you for the insight :-)