We, the “royal we” or humanity, need to stop trying to “be” right, to get “it” right or to “be good” as opposed to being “wrong” and “bad.”

Perhaps it would help to remember that good and bad and right and wrong are human concepts. In other words, we made it all up. What we refer to as “Mother Nature” makes no such distinctions. This was the dilemma among the old religions: the gods were capricious, indifferent to human suffering and selfish, among other things. Mother Nature just won’t behave in a sufficiently moral manner.

You can imagine their distress. We turned our attention to the sky. Beyond the old sky gods with their vicious thunderbolts and capricious weather, yes the “one” real god must be out there somewhere: a moral god, a caring god. And a new explanation for all these difficulties … the devil, the opposite of the loving god.

Well, that hasn’t held up to more mature scrutiny, so what’s next? How shall we solve the problems of suffering and death?

We continue to view death as the opposite of life, like god is the opposite of the devil, light-dark, etc and ad nauseum.

Forgive my impatient grumbling. I feel like a mother trying to get the kids up for school. When I was a teen, nothing short of a cold wet rag could jar me from my slumber. But I digress.

The great spiritual teachers all point beyond duality, beyond right and wrong, beyond the duality paradigm.They point to a unifying principle, claim it’s intelligent or as Eckhart Tolle calls it, “consciousness itself.” Thus God continues to evolve.

Consciousness seems to offer a unifying thread. God, or consciousness, we are now told in spiritual circles is indwelling in all of creation. We feel partial to living and sentient life, that being where we currently find ourselves. But it’s a start.

Still we are ever seeking rescue and relief from suffering and death. And we also feel we deserve an explanation.

What we forget is that we created the problem in the first place.

If we created the problem, perhaps we can stop seeking a savior outside of ourselves. We created it. Let’s fix it.

Carl Jung taught about the need to embrace our dark side. Embrace that?! Never, we say. We are created in god’s image and we are supposed to be good. Resist evil, repent, manage ourselves … wait! Manage the good and resist the evil.

We’re so stuck.

Okay, try this instead: whenever a so-called negative or bad thought or a fearful or angry emotion arises…and they are always arising…just let that energy and those thoughts come as they will. Try to relax and just watch them. Don’t judge, analyze, resist or change them. Take whatever time you need to let these thoughts and feelings arise, allow yourself to experience your thoughts and feelings. This is “off the record” and I’m not wearing a wire.

Watch. Don’t engage, don’t make decisions, do not take action related to the upset. Make tea. Listen to music, go for a walk, watch a Charles Bronson movie, run, walk, talk, cry. Watch.

When the emotions and mental energy subside, as they always do, remember you are not only a member of the animal kingdom on planet Earth. You are also a spiritual being. As such, you have an unlimited capacity to engage in productive ways with whatever circumstances may arise. Allow this aspect to decide what you will do.

Denial hasn’t worked.

Find the love between us. That is a good place to start.