“I'm not in the don't-touch-it school. Maybe it's my Italian heritage. I call it Mediterranean satsang. I say, "Come here, poor little story!" If the story keeps coming back, it means it's desperate for a little loving attention.
If you are always going, "Oh, it's just story," of course it's going to renew its effort: "No, I'm not!"
If a certain situation continues to arise, just let it sit with you. See it as your devotee. Grant it the compassion to be able to sit with you. Say, "Yes, you are welcome here." Even story. In the beginning it's good to get firm with stories, because there are way too many of them. But it's like Reader's Digest; you have them condensed down to the top five issues, right?
When you're feeling strong, or if you have a friend to sit with, just sit in the silence until you're soothed, until the body and brain are soothed, and then invite the story to come sit. It will start to activate the body, and then the brain will start to bring in strategies to fix it and try to help. So thank the brain, and then attend to what's happening in the body. Stories have another function, other than bothering us. They're designed to dissolve the defenses in the body. They're like armor. So you sit with the issue, the upset, and see where it's triggering in the body, and then just allow awareness to move into it and permeate the upset - like awareness has hands, and it's soothing and loving.
What you're doing is helping the body let go of the past. One of the ways the body creates release is by recreating something from the past in order to pull it out of the earth of the body. Otherwise it stays deep. This system of release is strange - almost reptilian, it's so ancient. These bodies are from another time. Even though you get a fresh, new body every time, a lot of the defenses are recreated through thought. That's why I say bring the story here. There's no lack of brilliance in the design of either the body or the way it lets go, or even that this world is so harsh. Robert Adams used to call this the remedial planet, because when you really want freedom, this is where you come.
It's sweet: the body asks for a blessing through its upset, its agitation. It's invoking the Beloved, awareness-consciousness: "Please, master, come here. Please heal me." And if it's really frantic, then it will be sending out distress signals all the time. So it has another function: to awaken the Beloved. It awakens the satguru through its distress.
Ramana used to say, "I would follow a devotee into hell if need be." So when hell or agitation arises in the body, it's luring the satguru out of the heart. Everything is an invitation for the Buddha to awaken and bring peace, even to the body. It calls for the laying on of hands, the welcoming and soothing. Even doubt is asking for your love. Doubt is talking to you, saying, "Master, is this true?"
When you see your body and thought as your devotees, you have a completely different relationship with them. Where else are they going to go for truth?”