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The Need for Suffering
We are not made by that Great Intelligence that balances whole star systems, to suffer from the conflict that arises from an unbalanced understanding of our own essential nature! This is why if we ever wish to gain conscious control over our present nature -- along with what it attracts into our life -- we must gain what the great saints and mystics have always held in the highest esteem: true self-knowledge. But this needed higher knowledge cannot be acquired from sources outside of us; it must be gained through personal self-discovery. Only real changes in the level of self-understanding can help us effect real changes in our present nature, for the two are very much related. Change one and we change the other, including what it has been attracting into our lives.
-- Guy Finley
Do you think we need to suffer? This is an interesting question indeed. There are many different answers depending on what religious or philosophical teachings you study. I have been exploring this subject in depth through personal experience on an emotional and physical level. Suffering has led me to many profound personal and spiritual awakenings.
I am certainly not going to tell anyone they have to suffer in this life, but unfortunately, I have not met anyone who has not experienced suffering in their lives. The world we live in functions through contrast so therefore we often find our peace on the other side of suffering. They are two sides of the same coin. If suffering leads us to peace: then is suffering a bad thing?
Since we are likely to suffer at some point in our lives as a way of awakening, growing or changing, can changing our perception of suffering change our experience of it? How do we change our perception of suffering? Moreover, if we are able to change our perception is it then possible not to suffer?
First, let’s talk about changing our perception about suffering. In order to change our perception we must understand the effects of resistance in our suffering. I think we can all agree that suffering includes resistance. Without resistance, would suffering exist? Resistance is the one factor that can cause additional unwanted pain and intensify the experience. The more we resist, the more pain we feel and the longer we will suffer. This is true on both the physical and emotional levels. The first step in changing our perception about suffering is to begin to identify how we resist -- sometimes a very difficult proposition since we often do not recognize our own resistance. Once we are aware of our resistance, we can then begin to notice the effect of how releasing resistance diminishes our suffering and pain.
There are many ways of resisting: through our thoughts, physically, or emotionally, to name a few. For example, fear is resistance on the emotional level, tensing up on the physical level or through your thoughts by thinking something like I am so tired of feeling this pain.
Identifying resistance is a tricky business sometimes because we are controlled by its very nature. You must be very conscious to awaken to resistance and begin the process of letting go. Once you do, you will see how it affects your suffering and then you will begin to change your perception about suffering. You will find that your suffering is here to teach you something about your true self and this will help lead you into a more peaceful place. However if you continue to fight the experience then your suffering will grow.
By changing your perception about suffering, identifying resistance and then releasing it, you can begin to dissolve your suffering. Once you do this, you can move through your suffering more quickly and easily, thereby returning to a state of peace. Your suffering does not have to remain intense and everlasting. You may find that this new state of peace is deeper and more meaningful than any place you have yet experienced. Your suffering may just disappear, or it may still be there: you have just risen above it and back to your true nature a spiritual being having a human experience.
For a different perceptive see the article Free Yourself From False Suffering by Guy Finley under "Tim’s Tip" in the September 2007 newsletter.
For a physical practice that can help you let go of resistance/suffering, please see Tim's Tip Body Scanning – Paying attention to the feelings in your body in the July 2007 newsletter.
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