One day a bird flew into a room in our house. (It could have just as easily been your house). We wanted to help it to get free. But it was afraid of us. It did not trust us. It had been programmed by his species' previous contact with ours that we are dangerous and that we kill them not only to eat them, but for «sport».

It was so deeply programmed that it was unable to distinguish between those previous contacts and our present very kind and well meaning motives to help it get free and save it from harm. Its fear would not allow it to perceive our good intentions. Every time we approached it, it frantically flew away banging into walls and various objects, proving to itself its original belief that we were dangerous and wanted to harm it.

We, however, in truth had no intention to harm it. If it could only have perceived clearly the present moment; and not distort it through its previous conditioning, it would not have been harmed at all. Its own ignorance and misconception of reality are the cause of the harm that is happening to it. Its lack of trust in the hand that is chasing it to help it get free is causing it to fly blindly into objects which harm it and cause it to suffer.

We are all very much like that trapped bird. We are caught in the room of our limiting beliefs and attachments which limit our freedom and happiness. The hand of life comes with the motive of love to set us free from our attachments and limited perception of ourselves and the people and events around us. We do not trust that hand. We are afraid of any type of change.

We do not trust the flow of events, and try to prevent any type of change so as to feel secure, even if the environment in which we feel secure is in reality a painful one for us. We prefer to stay in our room of suffering rather than trust the hand of life which comes to free us with some type of change.

This process of freeing us from our self-created room of limitation and suffering often entails removing one of the walls or even the foundation of that room, resulting in events such as the loss of a job, or of some valued possession or (that which we all fear the most) the loss of a loved one. In what other way can we discover inner security, inner strength, or the truth of our real spiritual nature without occasionally having some of the walls removed so that we can see ourselves and life more clearly, more objectively and more deeply?

Are you afraid of the hand of life?Are you afraid of change?

Or do you believe that life really loves you and wants only whatever is for your best as a soul in evolution?

Can you flow with the changes which you cannot change or obstruct?

Or are you like the bird trapped in your own room of beliefs and fears?

It is your choice.