The Illusion of Control

Living, then, ceases to be an anxious attempt to secure results and becomes a daily exercise in lucidity, surrender, and alignment with the greater intelligence of life.

One of the deepest inclinations of any human being is to try to reduce the vastness of life to what can be understood, predicted, and controlled.

This happens because the mind seeks security. It wants to frame the world, people, and events within boundaries that provide comfort, satisfaction, and a sense of dominance.

Thus, we try to shape reality so that it corresponds to our desires and rejects whatever causes us discomfort.

In doing so, we create the illusion that the world will remain within the frame we have projected and that, in this way, life will respond exactly to our expectations.

But it is enough to observe ourselves to realize how impermanent everything is. When we wake up, we set an intention for the day. A few hours later, it already changes. By the end of the day, another decision arises, and before sleep, yet another perception appears. So, if our body and mind change at every moment, how can we expect absolute stability from the world?

Our thoughts, desires, fears, and fantasies arise and disappear like waves. And when we extend this same dynamic to all beings, we understand that existence as a whole is movement, it is intense flows and vast transformations.

So, in the face of this reality, the essential question is not how to control life, but how to inhabit this flow with awareness, harmony, and clarity.

Essentially, true spiritual practice does not lie in trying to correct the world, but in strengthening the heart and refining the mind so that we can cross the unexpected with lucidity, the unpredictable with compassion, and adversity with courage.

In this way, when we humbly recognize that the world does not exist to satisfy our personal desires, something profound reorganizes within us: a quiet maturity arises, an inner strength that does not depend on external circumstances.

And within this space, we learn to welcome people as they are, events as they present themselves, and life as it reveals itself. Not with resignation, pain, or accusation, but with wisdom and humanity.

Thus, life ceases to be a battlefield to be conquered and becomes a path to be walked with liberating presence, where every experience, pleasant or challenging, turns into an opportunity for maturation, self-knowledge, and the expansion of consciousness.

In other words, when we abandon the obsession with control, we gain something infinitely more valuable, i.e., inner freedom. A freedom that allows us to act with responsibility, love with less fear, choose with greater clarity, and trust the flow of existence without losing discernment.

Living, then, ceases to be an anxious attempt to secure results and becomes a daily exercise in lucidity, surrender, and alignment with the greater intelligence of life. And it is in this state of conscious presence that we discover we do not need to control the world in order to live in peace, we simply need to learn how to dwell in our divine essence with truth, courage, and serenity.

Pune, December 14, 2025

Translated from Portuguese, by ChatGPT.

Photo by Randy Jacob on Unsplash