The Vexing Truth

Vexation is a poison we inflict upon ourselves!

Two days ago I wrote about the beginning of school and the student who is teaching me lessons in Living in Truth. SuSu left a wonderful question. She said, "So not to encourage your vexation over said student; but do you ever just hope they drop your class since they bring their negative force into the room? Just wondering."

The simple answer to that is "Yes!" It would be nice. But the Truth is he hasn't dropped the class. What SuSu is getting at, however, is the question of whether hoping he goes away is Living in Truth or not. The answer to that brings up some very important nuances to what it means to Live in Truth.

First of all, thoughts of any kind sometimes pop into our heads uninvited. It isn't the thought itself that sends us into the Pit of Illusion. It is what we do with the thought. We can throw the thought out or we can swell on it. It is is a negative thought it will vex us. If the thought vexes us we need to ask, "Is this the truth?" In the case of my student, the simple truth is that he is bringing a negative influence into the classroom. The second question to ask is, "Can I fix it or do I need to live with it?"

In this case there are some options to fix the problem. Technically I could ask him to leave the class, but I don't think that is the right thing to do. I could say something very sarcastic to "put him in his place." But again that is not a good way to handle it. There are several other negative things I could do, but none of them seem right to me. But I can hope that on his own he decides to change classes as long as my hoping is a simple desire and doesn't  turn into fretting and or vexing. If the though crosses the line from being a simple desire and becomes a vexation that is creating vexing feelings, then I am in the Pit of Illusion.

Since the young man hasn't dropped the class my choice in this situation is to live with it and the way to live with it without vexing is to learn to love it. So I am working on thinking up all the possible ways I can to help him and to see him as God sees him. Yes, it takes effort, but the effort is worth it! It will keep me out of the Pit--a place I hate.