ting on dark glasses, putting in earplugs, and covering
ourselves with armor?
Confessing our neurotic action is a fourfold pro-
cess by which we learn to see honestly what we do
and develop a yearning to take off those dark glasses,
take out those earplugs, take off that armor and expe-
rience the world fully. It’s yet again another method
for letting go of holding back, another method for
opening rather than closing down.
- Regret. So, first, regret. Because of mindful-
ness and seeing what you do, which is the result of
your practice, it gets harder and harder to hide from
yourself. Well, that turns out to be extremely good
news, and it leads to being able to see neurosis as
neurosis—not as a condemnation of yourself but as
something that benefits you. Regret implies that
you’re tired of armoring yourself, tired of eating poi-
son, tired of yelling at someone each time you feel
threatened, tired of talking to yourself for hours each
time you don’t like the way someone else does some-
thing, tired of this constant complaint to yourself.
Nobody else has to give you a hard time. Nobody has
to tell you. Through keeping your eyes open, you
yourself get tired of your neurosis. That’s the idea of
regret.
Once someone who had done something that he
really regretted went to his teacher and explained the
whole thing. The teacher said, “It’s good that you feel
that regret. You have to acknowledge what you do. It’s
Overcoming Resistance 101