Reality is complex. It can be a painful experience, a joyful one, or anything in between. At the same time, reality just is, but we rarely treat it like something that just is. When things are painful, we want reality to be something else, and when things are good, we want to hold on. Our minds do all different kinds of maneuvers in service of this. When we rely on our minds, or more specifically, our thoughts or ideas, of what we think is real, we are deceiving ourselves, at least partly. 

Knowing that our thoughts are just our thoughts, mere suggestions of how to interpret reality, liberates us from our own notion of certainty. Which may sound paradoxical, isn’t certainty what we want? Of course, to feel like we are on top of things, having some sort of perceived control, can feel good, but it is a fantasy. It makes us stuck in how things should be, and if they’re not, then it’s “wrong”. If there weren’t any specific way things should be like, if we were just open to what is, would we suffer as much? 

Should we just accept anything as it is? War? Abuse? Criminal acts? Of course not. That is not what I’m trying to convey here. He/she who can live in uncertainty, in the not-knowing, is the freer person. If we can experience reality as open-mindedly as we can and anchor that with our emotional experience, our call to action or no action becomes clear.