Sit in a comfortable chair with your feet flat on the floor and your hands resting comfortably on your lap with your palms up.
Breathe deeply: in through the nose, out through the mouth. Just let your thoughts come and go but do not judge them. Simply label them as thought. Let them move on like clouds floating in the sky.
Now picture yourself being attacked by a giant grizzly bear.
His large frying-pan-size paw swats you in the face, razor-sharp claws shredding your skin like sun-baked newspaper. Still very much alive (but in a state of shock) you watch helplessly as Ursus horribilis devours the soft sweet meat of your exposed belly. With your spinal cord severed, escape is impossible.
It is here that you can give yourself the gift of surrender. There is absolutely nothing you can do but pray for a swift death. Now, having lost several gallons of blood in under two minutes, you are freezing cold and only semi-conscious when this most ungentle of giants begins removing the top of your skull in an effort to gain access to your gray jelly-like brain.
There are some things in life that we are completely powerless over. To try to fight against them is to anger them even more. The proper defense in a situation like this is no defense. Absolute and total surrender is required if we are to obtain freedom: in this case, the sweet freedom of final death.
I want you to picture your bear.
What does it look like? What does it smell like? Is it a male? Is it a female? Does your bear have any scars or chipped fangs?
Now make friends with your bear.
Thank it for choosing you to sustain itself, on choosing you to play an important part
in its survival.
Now hug the bear. Let's just say you can move your arms at this point. And whisper these words into its ears:
"Mighty bear: as you end my life you end my problems. You end my worrying and my endless need to please others, because having torn apart my body and devoured my flesh I no longer need to compare my looks to others. I no longer need to try to be anyone else. I can be content being me, a person who was savagely and slowly eaten by a bear. I thank you, and I love you."
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the furry lips. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving beast! Two blood-stained tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Bear.
Sit in a comfortable chair with your feet flat on the floor and your hands resting comfortably on your lap with your palms up.
Breathe deeply: in through the nose, out through the mouth. Just let your thoughts come and go but do not judge them. Simply label them as thought. Let them move on like clouds floating in the sky.
Now picture yourself being attacked by a giant grizzly bear.
His large frying-pan-size paw swats you in the face, razor-sharp claws shredding your skin like sun-baked newspaper. Still very much alive (but in a state of shock) you watch helplessly as Ursus horribilis devours the soft sweet meat of your exposed belly. With your spinal cord severed, escape is impossible.
It is here that you can give yourself the gift of surrender. There is absolutely nothing you can do but pray for a swift death. Now, having lost several gallons of blood in under two minutes, you are freezing cold and only semi-conscious when this most ungentle of giants begins removing the top of your skull in an effort to gain access to your gray jelly-like brain.
There are some things in life that we are completely powerless over. To try to fight against them is to anger them even more. The proper defense in a situation like this is no defense. Absolute and total surrender is required if we are to obtain freedom: in this case, the sweet freedom of final death.
I want you to picture your bear.
What does it look like? What does it smell like? Is it a male? Is it a female? Does your bear have any scars or chipped fangs?
Now make friends with your bear.
Thank it for choosing you to sustain itself, on choosing you to play an important part in its survival.
Now hug the bear. Let's just say you can move your arms at this point. And whisper these words into its ears:
"Mighty bear: as you end my life you end my problems. You end my worrying and my endless need to please others, because having torn apart my body and devoured my flesh I no longer need to compare my looks to others. I no longer need to try to be anyone else. I can be content being me, a person who was savagely and slowly eaten by a bear. I thank you, and I love you."
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the furry lips. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving beast! Two blood-stained tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Bear.