I’ve been thinking lately about the suffering people go through, myself included. I like to think, and I truly believe that we create our own reality, and according to the law of attraction, we bring things into our life because somehow we believe them to be the natural order of things.. at least on an unconscious level. Most spiritual teachings and even success teachings talk about an end to suffering – as if that were a goal – or even a possibility. Buddhism says that in this life there will be suffering. Jesus put it this way, “In this world you will have tribulation.” Around when I hit the midlife transition, I began to let go of the belief that I could eliminate unpleasantness in my life. I learned then that suffering is not about what is happening to us or what the external circumstances of life are about.
I was able to avoid the perverbial midlife crisis by coming to new conclusions: Things happen. People die. We lose jobs. We get traffic tickets. Our consciousness is not so clear as to rule out all manner of ‘chaos’ – in fact, there is an order in the chaos.
Perhaps that’s where the soul comes in. Our souls KNOW there is a purpose for everything that has or is happening in our lives. In fact, many things, it seems to call in for the express purpose of elevating our internal experience, or soul standing, if you will. This is the part that remains a mystery to so many people. Beyond what we consciously think we want, there is a longing in our soul’s for what we REALLY want.
Life sometimes brings us things we don’t like. We tend to want to hold on when we call something GOOD and to quickly release it when things seem ‘rough’. I once heard it said, ” The best growing days are the days when the sun doesn’t shine.” Oftentimes, we learn more through what seemed to be struggle than we do when we are in bliss.
When we lose something we wanted to hold onto, or experience things we don’t like, then we might have a tendency to suffer. This suffering is all about expectation and our attachment to things being a certain way.
Challenges are inevitable. Suffering is not. You can be in JOY even when things aren’t turning out the way you thought they should. (Notice, whenever you believe something SHOULD happen, it’s an expectation…) When you look at life through the soul’s point of view, you’ll begin to understand that it truly all is GOOD. There is a gift in every experience. Often, it takes distance and perspective to see that. Today, give yourself that distance. Buddists would call it “non-attachment”. Those in 12 step programs might be more familiar with the term “surrender”.
Today decide that all of life ‘comes to pass’ – nothing comes to stay. I used to have a belief that good didn’t last and I tried desparately to change that belief. Now, I KNOW that NOTHING lasts – and I laugh at myself when I think it does. Surrender is another way of saying – live in the Now. Whatever is, IS. If I experience rather than judge it, suffering goes away. Try it. It really does work.
