SUFFERING
~ Sri Amma bhagavan
“The Awakened One suffers, therefore there is no suffering.
The unawakened one moves away from the suffering, therefore there is suffering.”
The root cause of all suffering is a sense of separate existence. We have a divisive consciousness that perceives things like the “me” and the “not me”, the “mine” and the “not mine”, like my people and yours, as my nation and yours. Having divided all things we feel threatened by the other. Fear in turn breeds war. conflict and further forms of violence. Are we then beyond redemption? Are we to remain a bunch of pessimistic philosophers or apathetic onlookers bemoaning our collective doom? Well, not necessarily.
We as a race are on the brink of a colossal transition from one of separation to that of oneness. We would awaken from darkness to light, from untruth to truth. We would realize the oneness of all living things. Though each of us made lead different lives, located away from each other in space and time, we are biologically, emotionally and spiritually one.
There is only one body. What happens to the animals in the seas happens to us, men and women. What happens to forests happens to us in our bodies. Since our bodies and the trees are made of the same earth, are not our bodies moving clay forms endowed with intelligence?
A conscientious effort at healing the earth would manifest as the ultimate healing of our own bodies. There is only one mind. This is the mind that has flowed through our forefathers, us, and would, in turn, continue to live through our children and their progeny.
The collective torment or fear suffered by our own brethren in one part of the world would manifest as sleeping or waking nightmares to someone elsewhere in the world. Our pleasures and pains are interminably interlinked.
We are one and cannot continue to live any further in an illusion of separation. There is only one consciousness. We live in a holographic universe. Every individual awakening to oneness is automatically affecting a few thousand people, pushing them towards the only sane, alternative way of experiencing reality.
Our experience of reality has changed, we would go on to discovering newer ways of living and loving …
WHEN YOU SAY I’M SUFFERING
Whenever you say I am suffering, it means that you are running away from suffering. Because if you could turn around and confront the suffering, soak in it, embrace it, fall in love with it, be with it, accept it, do all these things.
Then see for yourself what happens!
The best thing is to embrace it and the strangest part is you will find sooner or later you will develop this art and every time suffering comes, you would embrace it and it becomes joy.
The first thing is seeing. When it comes to inner problems or inner growth or spiritual progress, you have to learn the art of seeing. What is there is not important for us, but you must *see’ what is there.
The key thing here is you have to get into a state where seeing is occurring all the time. When seeing happens, all suffering ceases because to see is to be free. There is no effort involved, there is no time involved.
Confronting your self-centeredness, though the word is misleading, it simply means that you just become aware that this is what you really are and you never thought that you are that. It is so and it is there, that is all. The mere seeing is sufficient.
MISERY OF SELF
What is there to your life? As far as God is concerned you are merely existing, you are not living.
You exist because you are afraid to die. What is there to your life, other than the terrible struggles?
Because you are there, in your being there is unhappiness. Not that you are unhappy. No. You = unhappiness. That is your condition. So, what is enlightenment? It is wiping out the ‘you’. You receive Oneness Blessing= Diksha and wipe the “you” out. If you are gone, you will still be very functional. The memory is there, you can do everything you are doing, only much better. Since you are not there, what is there is joy, is happiness, is love: What should we do to be happy? Well, we should erase you. Once “you” is gone, it does not matter who you are, what you are, what is there is only joy and happiness.
Please get the whole thing straight. I am not asking you to be free of the self. I am only asking you to be conscious of the self. Helping you to be free of the self is God’s; business. You couldn’t do that. –
What the Divine is trying to give you is the Oneness state. In that state, there is no sense of separateness, there is only connectedness. The whole problem with mankind is, people do not feel connected. Basically there is no transformation in man, there is tremendous misery and all this is out of a sense of separateness. You are destroying yourself because you are not able to handle this misery in you. So, this is the condition.
You have to lose the sense of separation and you have to feel connected. First, you start with your own family, then the world, the “you”, extend it to the animals, the plants and then finally to God. That is why I use the word oneness. When I speak of oneness with God, we mean actually becoming one with God.
The outer life is getting more and more difficult. The difficulties seem to accelerate. What does help us, what do we need, when there are doubts and disbelief?
The Outer world is going to become more and more difficult, as also the inner one. The easiest way out is to have the Divine in your life. If the Divine becomes your friend, you will be able to face the crises very, very easily. What is now most important is to get the Divine into your life.
“Your body is not yours,” but then who is suffering and experiencing the pain in the body? This physical pain doesn’t let one concentrate on the prayer or meditation. The pain wears you out, it limits your abilities, obscures your consciousness and impedes the awakening; that is that’s “you” who is suffering, isn’t it? But If you are not this body if this body is not yours, then why do you suffer from this physical pain in the body?”
If you clearly realize your body is not your body, then there is no physical suffering for you. But for you, that is not the truth. For you, the truth is your body is your body. That being the case when the body suffers you suffer because you identified yourself with the body. But when you realize your body is not your body, your mind is not your mind, your thoughts are not your thoughts then there is no suffering.
You cannot get there through any effort. It has to happen to you. When it happens to you, you discover who you are. You will discover that you are the Universe itself; that you are everything that you call yourself; that is the Oneness I am talking about.
SUFFERING IS IN PERCEPTION NOT IN FACT
Do animals have suffering at all? They do not have suffering except for a very, very short while. They have physical pain. If you beat an animal it has got physical pain and for a short term, it may be very angry with you. Now after some time, it’s no more angry with you because animals have only short term memory. They don’t have long term memory. Whereas we have long term memory and therefore, we go on thinking about an incident. Thinking about that incident is what gives you suffering.
Suppose somebody comes and gives you a fine slap. Now, what has happened? The hand has hit this side. It’s hot here for a few minutes. That’s all. So where is the problem? You can think of it as some kind of good exercise for your cheeks, for your head and then go about it. But then you are thinking, who is that rogue who hit you, why did he hit you, how to get back at him, how to punch him, all the things that happened.
That’s what we call suffering. The fact is simple. Just one hand came and hit your cheeks or somebody kicked you in the back. That’s all. So many times you’ve fallen down. So what? But why are you making such a big fuss out of it?
Because that memory is there and what is memory? Memory is a flow of thought and thought is the culprit. Thought always makes mischief. It always creates trouble. It survives by comparing. So thought is the root cause of all trouble and therefore it creates suffering by converting that fact into a perception. But then if you live a life of inner integrity you could stop it.
If you lead the life of inner integrity thought itself may stop. It may come only when required or even if it comes it would only be formal functional thought: this light is burning, switch it there, switch it off like this, put it this way. That kind of thought would be there, not going on thinking about what has happened either in the past or what is going to happen in the future. You would just be in the present. In the present, you cannot think.
Conversely, you can think of the past or the future. The present is a living experience. There is no thought at all. But, you’ve got into this habit. Like lying, this thinking has become a habit. Non-stop you’re thinking. So all the time thinking, thinking, thinking, which is a waste of energy. That’s why very often you feel tired, you can’t enjoy life because of non-stop thinking. So what’s the point of that thinking? So if all this must stop, you have to go back to inner integrity.
Similarly, I told you, all the time you are speaking lies and if you speak the truth, you would destroy society. But if you don’t speak the truth you will lead a life of lies which has its own harmful effects. So how do we handle the situation? Well at first we have to move into inner integrity. If you move into inner integrity you can be honest as well as not disturb society.
That’s why we’re trying to teach you inner integrity. So that is the truth if you want to speak lies. If you want to stop speaking lies you have to practice inner integrity. And as lies reduce there is no need for thoughts to go on working like this.
The thoughts are so full of lies from the ego going on thinking, continuously covering up things because if it does not go on thinking, the truth will be exposed and you do not want to see the truth about yourself.
You do not realize that while you know so much about the other person you know very little about yourself, but you seem to know so much about others and the fact is if you look into yourself you know what you’ll find there? Everybody wants to think nicely about themselves, to think good about themselves.
You don’t like the feeling of feeling guilty, feeling bad. So everything is nicely decorated. All that rubbish in you is nicely decorated. It’s all hiding inside. That is your problem. You’ve never seen yourself.
Speaking lies to somebody is ok, but speaking lies to yourself destroys you. And then you’ll come out a liberated being. You’ll be as free as the bird that is flying in the skies, so totally free you’ll become. But you have to practice inner integrity. The only tool is inner integrity.
ALL SUFFERING IS A STORY
So, when we experience suffering is it that our perception undergoes a change or will we land up in a state where there is no perception? What exactly happens?
The first thing you’ve got to understand is that all suffering is only a story. A story is what is causing the suffering. So by merely understanding it’s a story is not sufficient. You must know what is the story. So you must take the suffering to the next stage. When you stay with the suffering, the suffering will tell you its own story, which would be very surprising to you. You would not have expected that.
For example, many years ago I knew a young man who was studying at IAT. He, later on, became a very big scientist. IAT, as you all know, has the cream of India. So while doing his physics there he developed a tremendous amount of lust. So he began to do yoga.
Lust would not go. Then he began to do many other things but lust would not come under control. This was the condition in which he was. So whatever he was trying he could not control this lust and that was affecting his academics. That was his suffering.
So when he was made to experience that suffering, first by making him stay with it, what happened was the story came out. The story was this person hated experimental physics. He was all in love with theoretical physics but he was dead against experimental physics. He just had no inclination.
He had a love for mathematics and all the abstract concepts of physics. That was his fascination and he would not like to waste his time on experimental physics. This dislike motivated by hatred for experimental physics manifested as lust. Whenever you are involved in some work which you do not like, which you hate, then lust becomes too much. Because then you are doing if for survival sake and you always have a fear of survival.
Because he knew that he might fail in experimental physics, which means he would fail in his MSc, which means he might not become that scientist he wants to be, which means his survival is at stake. His whole survival is in becoming a great scientist. That was shaken. So when survival is threatened, lust would automatically go up. They have a close link. Lust, survival, and security are closely linked. When that is threatened, it will automatically go up.
Suppose you are playing in the share market and your shares are coming down, you will see the lust is going up. Suppose you engage in business and your business is failing, your lust will go up. Always failure which leads to a threat of survival, lust would automatically go up.
So this became very, very clear to him. Then he had the courage to stay with the suffering and then also experience it. So it began to reveal itself-the story-and then he knew, “this is it, is it?” So then what happened?
He suddenly developed a love for experimental physics because he knew this lust was connected to his dislike for experimental physics and he said, “OK, I’ll put a little more effort”, and then he did that and the lust disappeared. It came down to normal proportions and of course, later on, he also became a world-famous scientist.
So the story gets revealed. That’s why we talk in terms of a created problem and a real problem. So whenever you tell me “this is my problem, I know that it is a created problem. The real problem is something else. So how to get there, stay with it.
First, understand everything is only a story. In reality, there can be no suffering, because when you experience reality as it is there is only joy, there is only bliss, there is only love, no matter what it is.
But you do not experience reality because your mind is all the time interfering and what is the mind? It is all the time judging, it is commenting. Why? The mind is nothing but the flow of thought. What is thought? The thought is a kind of measurement. It compares yesterday with today, today with tomorrow, him with somebody else. All the time it is com, paring. It is a measurement.
The thought is an instrument of measurement. Constantly measuring, it is. So when you are measuring of course-there this vase. You must look at this vase not be measuring it in terms of its color or size, or shape. But the mind is nothing but the flow of thought and thought is from the past, and past is a memory, and memory is dead.
So death is flowing through you and if you have truly died to the past and to the future-psychologically if you have died to them-then you would live in the present. There is great bliss there. That is what we are trying to do to you. So now what happens is if you are going to stay with the suffering, mostly the story will be revealed.
If that also does not reveal then you can move into experiencing suffering. Then the story will definitely be revealed and not only that, there could a charge. Now the staying with it may give you the story but it might not remove the charge.
Now in this boy’s case what happened was in the staying with it he came to know the story and hating experimental physics, and all these things. But that was not the end of the story. Still, there was a discomfort.
So as he began to experience suffering it became very clear to him that there was a remark by an uncle of his who was a big professor of physics in an American university, who when he was a small boy made a comment: “Only fools would do experimental physics.
The greater your brains you would move into theoretical physics.” So there started the bias against experimental physics, the actual dislike of it. So he experienced the suffering there and the charge went away. So to remove the charge you have got to experience suffering. Whenever anything is re-experienced, the charge goes away.
Clearly you must re-experience it. Like two people cannot stay on the same spot, isn’t it? You have to knock down one and put the other in. So in a similar way what happens is when you re-experience it that charge is removed. It’s gone. With the charge gone, entire perception changes because it comes from your story or it comes from the charge, the perception.
Once perception is changed, everything changes. Your experience of reality depends on your perception. If that changes, the experience changes, and then the suffering is gone. But the ultimate suffering is there should be no perception at all.
So this is the first level. This is like normal suffering. But if you want to go a level where you’ll experience things as they are then thought itself must stop, and that is possible. When you are drinking coffee you should be drinking coffee.
Why should you think about the cricket commentary or the score? You should be drinking coffee. That’s when completely all suffering ends. There’s nothing but joy and love in your life. What joy? Unconditional joy. Unconditional love.
You could be a beggar. You could be a leper, but you’ll have unconditional joy. This joy does not depend on whatever you are gaining or whatever you are losing. It is just there. You could be anybody.
You might be the world’s most powerful man, the world’s richest man, but you would not have this joy unless you experience reality as it is, and unconditional love. There would be love towards the king as well as the beggar because there is no thought. So all this is possible to achieve.
Will suffering end? Will there be a point in your life where suffering will ever stop? Can you be awakened without so much suffering? Can you be in joy to reach awakening?
Suffering could definitely end. And suffering is not necessary to become awakened; people could joyously also become awakened. It depends on their life situation.
Most of us are tired of battling with life. We often wonder if life is conspiring against our joy and peace. The more we try to elude pain, the more challenging it becomes. Is it simply bad luck or the fruit of our past deeds or an irrevocable destiny that is forcing its way into my life?
Life is like a cricket match. It is like a bowler throwing various kinds of balls at you ball of pain, ball of pleasure, ball of hatred, ball of jealousy, ball of crisis. You are the batsman. Your life depends on how you play these balls.
In a cricket match if the bowler knows you are afraid of leg-breaks, he’ll constantly bowl leg- breaks at you. So is life. If you do not accept the balls it bowls, it will bowl only such balls since that is your weakness. Being a batsman you are expected to face every kind of ball.
You cannot afford to say I would not face a particular kind of a ball or a bowler. If you say that then the opposing team captain would only make that bowler bowl. Life knows what you are afraid of and only such kinds of balls would come. Therefore, if you learn to play all the balls, your problems would get solved.
Learning to play all the balls is nothing but Recognizing, Accepting and experiencing events and incidents as they occur without trying to run away from them. You should not think life would be nice and kind. It would bowl all kinds of balls. A good batsman would not run away from the field saying it is a tough ball. If you are fighting jealousy then life would keep giving you situations where you would feel more jealous.
But if you learn to play the balls of jealousy by experience it then the opposing captain would declare that you have won. He would concede because you are now hitting every ball for a six. And what is it to hit every ball for a six – To experience everything in life.
The art of experiencing is the art of batting. If you could experience everything, whatever be the situation you have won. If you can do that here, you are fully enlightened. An enlightened man is one who can hit every ball for a six.
How does Mukthi (awakening or enlightenment) act as a solution for all problems?
If we analyze the cause and effect of all the problems, the final cause is the sense of separation, km different and the rest are different. That is the reason. That separateness is the “Self”. That Self is the cause of all problems! If the self is not there, there are no problems. How do you remove the Self? That is Awakening.
When you get awakened, the Self dissolves. Basically, if the Self goes, all problems should go. But the car has to stop. There is a past momentum, a karmic momentum. So for some time, there might be some problems. But all that would eventually dissolve because no fresh karma would be accumulated.
Mind chattering would reduce significantly. So the solution to all problems is Awakening. The Self should be dissolved. The Self is responsible for personal problems, individual problems, problems in the family, problems in the society, problems in the world, problems between countries, problems with our environment and for all other problems. If we take it off, we can destroy the Self. That is Awakening.
The mind keeps us trapped in suffering and does not give any space for gratitude, humility, and devotion. This experience makes you very sad and hopeless. It feels like a new imprisonment. Your heart is weeping. What can we do in your unawakened state, to get your permanent awakening?
The unawakened person can do only one thing. That is stay with “The What Is”. There is nothing else you can do. Staying with “The What Is” is the process for the unawakened.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post. I look forward to hearing your comments & suggestions.
Love & Gratitude
