You have two options in your Life and with it! Either to learn
from your suffering and move on, finding in the process the true essence and
meaning of Life, or you live your Life remaining stuck with your pain and
misery.
Think about it this way. Just as you cannot control the seasons,
or the sunrises and sunsets, or the rain, or the rainbow, you cannot control
Life. Nor can you control what happens to you through your lifetime. So, pain
and pleasure are both inevitable. Pleasure you never have a problem with.
Because who will say no to pleasure? But when pain arrives, you have a huge
problem. You wish it weren’t there. Whenever and wherever there is a wishing,
an expectation, agony and suffering is assured. So, in effect, nobody can escape
suffering the first time you are afflicted by pain. But surely you can learn
not to suffer when pain strikes the next time!
Intelligent living is to learn, appreciate and accept the nature
of Life as being so uncontrollable and to understand its essence. It is to know
that if you are born, you will be subject to some pain, some time or the other,
in Life. It is also to know that you have the choice to learn from Life’s
painful episodes and moments, and move on, by choosing, therefore, not to
suffer. On the other hand, if you cling on to your pain, or the sources that cause
you pain, you will be stuck with it. You will then be wallowing in a cesspool
of suffering, misery, agony, accompanied often by low self-esteem and self-sympathy!
Only those who know that freedom from suffering, and peace, comes
only when you stop fighting Life, will be able to move on. And unless you
discover this truth about Life, you will remain stuck.
 |
| Ramana Maharishi by Henri Cartier-Bresson April 1950 |
The great Indian guru Ramana
Maharshi (1879~1950) eventually died of cancer. It was a very painful end. There
was no way even a seer like the great Ramana could escape it. Many doctors
came, and they were very puzzled because while body seemed to be writhing in
pain, there was no sign of any pain in his eyes. His eyes remained the same –
as serene as ever. Through his eyes only the witnessing Self arose; it was the
witnessing Self that looked, that observed, reported people close to him at
that time. The doctors would ask, “You must be in great pain?” Ramana would
reply, “Yes there is great pain, but it is not
happening to me. I am aware that there is great pain happening to the body; I
know that there is great pain happening. I am seeing it, but it is not
happening to me.”
Again, the fickle human mind will
argue one of two ways. How is it that a sage like Ramana Maharishi can be
afflicted by cancer? And when he himself could not avert any pain, what is the
point of all this – how can you or I, lesser mortals, escape pain then? The
answers lie in the questions themselves. Nobody can avoid or evade pain. None
can. Your awareness, like Ramana Maharishi’s, can, however, help you understand
that whatever is happening is not happening to you, the real you, but to the
body or to a world that you are only visiting! That understanding is the way out of suffering. This is the
truth! The other truth, though paradoxical, is also profound – without suffering
you cannot understand Life!
Examine your Life. Refuse to
remain stuck with pain. Use whatever is causing you pain__and suffering__as a
means, a channel, to understand Life. And liberate yourself through that
understanding.
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