What is a problem? What is its makeup?
A dictionary states it this way:
In everyday language, a problem is a question proposed for solution, a matter stated for examination or proof. In each case, a problem is considered to be a matter which is difficult to solve or settle, a doubtful case, or a complex task involving doubt and uncertainty.
Or, a problem exists when a current situation compared to the ideal situation is unacceptable and must be changed. Problems seem to raise the question ”How can this current situation be made ideal?” Right?
The most urgent matter to be addressed in the case of a problem is to notice that facts actually exist and ideal situations do not exist. It is one thing to deal directly with a fact and an altogether different matter to try to deal with an ideal which does not exist and will always involve conceptual preferences of self interest. Self interest corrupts any attempt at certainty. It is guesswork at best. And guesswork will bring new problems with any of its attempted solutions. Always there is loss and the problem solver is worse off by trying than just accepting the current situation as fact. Such effort is completely wasted. Wasting energy is foolishness. More to come on that score.
What is going to be revealed next is the most important learning a human being can receive. It relieves one of the futility of an existence in a world of ever increasing problems. And brings peace.
For centuries humans were baffled with a problem of alcoholism. Nothing they tried helped. The poor creatures afflicted by the condition were seemingly beyond aid. They were condemned to a horrible life leading to a pitiful death meanwhile inflicting pain on those who loved them. Then came a miraculous discovery by two drunkards themselves that resulted in the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous. Millions have recovered from a seemingly hopeless condition!
The heart of the Twelve Steps is Number One. It is an admission that the fact is a fact. The admission is no easy matter. Great courage is required to actually mean it when one says “I am powerless to do anything to change my situation.” Hopefully, some who have not faced such a moment can still feel its power in there lives. By the strength of the admission self is removed from the picture long enough for a selfless solution to occur in a flash of insight. A direct flash! Seeing the fact as it is is all that was ever needed! These men and women never drank alcohol again, not as a punishment or retribution for sin but by an obvious realization that absent self-centered interest which sets humans at odds with each other and nature they had no use whatsoever for alcoholic consumption. Freedom is a fact now for those fortunate ones who can understand the real problem was.…me… and that eliminates the need for problem solving for all time.
My sponsor in AA told me that every morning since he made the admission his first order of business is to humble himself before Truth and admit from his soul that I am going into the world today without sword or shield so if I need defending today in any way, you, are going to have to do it for I am not going to lift a finger in my own defense nor to have my own way.
Do you see the implications of such an attitude? It helped me greatly to recall the meaning of the term”attitude” is derived from the nautical term for the direction of a ship at sea that determines a successful crossing. And I find it humorous indeed that a pair of drunks found the secret to life! There is something about drunks not easily understood by those without the affliction which involves a stubborn refusal to march in lockstep with the crowd that is wasting so much energy solving problems in the interest of self that always create so many more. The great poet William Blake wrote: The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom; for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.
In my own case, I can say that since I began following my sponsor’s daily attitude I find it is so that one in that posture has no response psychologically whatever to insult or threat. There is simply nothing present to receive them. What happens is in the nature of pure action and that is precisely the same secret discovered by those first two drunks who formed AA. Pure action is quite different from self-centered action or problem solving. It is from a different dimension entirely. It is a fact. Try it for yourself. It will do you no good until it is your truth. There is virtually no power in believing somebody else. Find out.
