Have you ever been criticized or ridiculed for talking about your spiritual experiences? It's hard to conceive how a simple reference to a personal experience of God can stir up such negative expressions, when it is the one concept that unites all religions. It is easier to understand, however, when you have learned about and experienced the conflicts that can arise when truth, which is always positive, meets the negative forces within us that are threatened by it. Whether you believe those forces are generated internally or externally, no one has achieved knowledge of God without overcoming fierce resistance from them. When the negativity comes from others, it is because they are experiencing the struggle within themselves.
If a person is willing to endure that conflict, then he or she has taken the first step on the road to fulfillment and peace. The outward repudiation and denial of the truth is a sign that the inner struggle has begun. Why waste the time to deny what you claim is nonsense, unless there is something within you that responds warmly to it? The only way to separate your true feelings from those that have imposed themselves upon you is to allow both to surface. This will bring discomfort and even pain, but it is the only path out of dis-ease into enlightenment. If you allow truth and falsehood to wrestle for control of your spirit, truth will eventually win because it is strong while falsehood is weak and empty. You can perpetuate the conflict by attempting to suppress it, or you can hasten its joyous conclusion by making it the focus of prayer and meditation. Peace is always within your grasp, and with peace comes indescribable bliss.
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