THE NEED TO SUFFER

Does anyone really believe that we opt for suffering or for more suffering than we already have? The seeming natural choice would be to eliminate suffering. But what is going on in terms of awareness that allows the contraindicated to occur in epidemic proportions?

“Do you want a sign that you’re asleep? Here it is: You’re suffering. Suffering is a sign that you’re out of touch with the truth. Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there’s falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering points out that there is falsehood somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. When your illusions clash with reality when your falsehoods clash with the truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering.” Anthony de Mello

The fact is that we are negotiating our suffering and moderating it to an acceptable level. How can it be otherwise?

At first blush, when we get hit with an overabundance of ‘hurt’ we look externally to establish the victimizer of the assault. There indeed maybe a villain to pin on the crime, to self. This though, is not a reason to abandon the Self. Huh? Abandon the Self?! Are we blaming the victim here?!

We abandon the Self when we ‘think’ we are the ones who are bearing the insult?
Who is bearing the insult? This question is more the question and answer. And the answer is not philosophical. It Is. To say that it is “pie in the sky” is to further deny the Truth of Being. The ’Self’ is the perennial backdrop. The false self attaches the idea (the insult) to it’s idea of whom it is. This redefinition excludes reality and the Self, giving rise to the contracted birth of ego.

In the typical action/reaction of suffering, we often try to restore the idea of happiness to our lives. This type of normality is insufficient because it never was sufficient to begin with. Our normality is on the scale of uncomfortable to quiet and not so quiet desperation. It is an external striving to restore a failing idea, i.e. the ego/false self and separateness.

Separateness is stressful. Jeffrey Mogil published an interesting study on empathy in “Current Biology”. The experiment had individuals plunging their hands and arms into icy water for 30 seconds and then rating their pain. The inclusion of a stranger in the room did not alter the pain scale for either participant. However, the addition of a ‘friend’ had caused an increase in pain scale rating for the plunger due to theorized “emotion contagion” attributed to the ‘ friend’ being present. This did not occur with the stranger, that is, empathy was presumed to not be present. Stranger anxiety blocked the empathy, presumably. Moreover, if two ‘strangers’ were given the opportunity to engage in “Rockband”, they, after 15 minutes would establish empathy towards each other.

What needs to change, in our minds, is the external environment. Somebody, something, or some circumstance. If we go inside, we go inside tentatively with a predisposed limitation, where we are not fully ‘in’. We withhold a deep part of “who we think we are” out of fear of losing the only thing we feel sure of in this world. This ‘idea’ is often not seen or wants to be seen, because there so many other ‘easier’ things wrong in the “parade”. So many people to be wary of. We must protect what we have because we also know it is fleeting. It is fleeting because it is only an amorphous idea.

Pushing away from confrontation with our core issue is reflexive and protective of the false self and separateness.

Reality is clear and simple. Our layering on reality is what is complicated.

When we push away from Reality, we automatically misperceive as we contract. Is that not so? Not accepting ‘What Is’, is always a distortion. Suffering is disconnecting Ourselves from Ourselves into a separateness that is a false reality with a false self.
This ‘pushing’ is not effortless to do or maintain. It is the stress we harbor continually in this lesser altered state of reduced consciousness. Contractions hurt. We are maintaining pain in this unnatural state. Effortlessness is abandoned for struggle and separateness.

The illusion is that we have to struggle. If we do not struggle we feel the world will fall apart. “I am going to fight to the end”, kind of thinking. Yes, thinking that this idea is Reality! It is a common trap that is set by the mind to maintain the dominance of the mind. And it works all too well.

So, the primary issue really is our own attachment to our own thinking and how we perceive and the structures we use to perceive. Beliefs are ideas that we feel are vital to pledge ourselves to, to make sure we adhere to something. However, this is what disconnects us from Us. The alternative pejorative thinking is that if we don’t stand for something, we stand for nothing. This furthers ‘thinking’ not Being. We get caught up in the lesser vehicles that cannot take us to our destination, which is Now and already exists in the Now. Ideas can never reflect the fullness of Reality.

This is the part that we have no desire in pursuing because it means making core and fundamental departures from how we perceive. We’d rather suffer (unfortunately).
Here ignorance is bliss. Here the storyline dictates us just like a fairy tale. Mind and imagination are not honest ways to deal with Ourselves. In this case, suffering is increased. It is not more fun to believe (in Santa Claus, the Tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny).

Only in the correction of our core perception of who we Are, can we free ourselves from the uncomfortable ‘I’ and it’s associates and consequences. Suffering cannot soley be blamed on the “parade”. The “parade” will always be uncertain, interesting, and seductive. But that is no reason to disconnect from greater Awareness and reject the Reality of “What Is”.

Effortless Consciousness is Us. IT is permanent and not bound by the frivolity and artificialness of the “parade”. Our core frequency is the core frequency of the entire Universe, that is, joyfulness, empathy and selflessness. Let the doing and pushing go. See the misperception of our ‘normal’ perception. Start the mind with ‘not knowing’ and be open to the higher frequencies of Being and Seeing which are fully Present in the Now.

We are Awareness more than any thought or idea of awareness. See.

This Iz Daddy’O