1-29-2014

Why is there suffering in life?  Can you see the reasons for it?  Is there a way to stop it?  Is there a pathway out of it?  Herein lies the basis of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.  In a very simplified answer, there is suffering due to karma.  We bring to our lives what we have reaped, whether in this life or another.  Therefore, there can be no judgment about anyone else’s life, for what we are seeing is like a freeze frame within the whole movie of a life or lives.  We have no idea what has gone before or what will go after.  Tied into karma is the soul’s purpose.  Why has it chosen a life to suffer so?  Is it trying to balance out what it has sown in this life or in past lives?  Or is it here for contrast, such as learning to love self, and therefore to love all others through a seemingly opposing way of coming to that truth?  There are many reasons suffering goes on.  But have hope, for there is a way out, or off the Wheel of Karma as it were.

In order to understand the Four Noble Truths and the answer to how to get off the Wheel, it is important to understand the Eightfold Path.  It entails right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.  What it comes down to is morality, a concentration of right mindfulness and wisdom through understanding and intention.

In western terms, it is about being pure of thought, acting through right intention, speaking kindly, acting toward others as you would have them act toward you, not being involved with anything as a livelihood that would bring harm to others, but instead, putting out an effort to help others, detaching from addictions (mental and emotional mostly) that would block you, and seeing all things through the eyes of compassion.  There is no judgment allowed in what other people are doing, being, or saying.  That is their path, not yours.  Right mindfulness allows you to detach from the suffering you see of others, what you consider evil, what you consider wrongdoing.  It is choosing the middle road, the Golden Path, or neutrality because you cannot judge another’s path, or the karma they are living out or that their soul chose to live out.  It does not mean ignoring or condoning, but it means seeing things as they actually are in the truth of it. This means seeing beyond the human eyes, which tend to judge.  It is being the observer and allowing things to pass before you, through you, without attaching to them or giving energy to them, good, bad or otherwise.  It is remaining neutral, taking the middle road.

Eckhart Tolle talks about this in his books, his lectures.  It is what he is all about!  It is finding that still place within, that space where the soul resides, and being the observer through the soul of your self and not the mind, especially not the ego.  Also, in Michael A. Singer’s book, The Untethered Soul, he gives guidelines in how to release your thoughts, especially those about yourself, and see them as the “things” they are.  They are transient, temporary, just as the moments of the day are.  Thoughts change, emotions change, even your cells change.  There is nothing permanent about any of it.  The only permanent thing is your soul, the “I”, the observer.  This is a much bigger I than that of the ego.  This is the God part of the I. 

In growing up, remember looking in the mirror and seeing yourself as you were then?  You look in the mirror now and see yourself as you are now.  What has changed?  Appearance for sure.  Thoughts and emotions have changed with growth and wisdom and learning.  But there is something inside that has not changed one iota – the observer of it all.  This is the soul.  This is the One within.  This is the only permanent thing – the energy of the soul that has been for all time and will be for all time.  All else is judged through this third dimensional world where all is temporary, and truthfully, illusion.  It is through mass consciousness that it all seems to be what it is, what we call reality.  It is through the agreement of the minds of all that a tree is a tree, a bird is a bird, red is red, and so on.  But aren’t there also vast differences in the interpretation of life throughout cultures?  What Americans would think of as sub-standard living conditions are not seen that way in other parts of the world, and so we think they are suffering.  In many cases they are not.  It is only in our perception.  Yes, there are places in the world where there is suffering, but remember you are judging anything below what you personally understand as “normal,” to be sub-standard.  This is not always the case. 

The most important thing to remember through your own soul’s learning and to understand is life just is.  Everyone has their own perception, like an opinion, of what they see, usually interpreted by their own upbringing or something from the past.  See things in the now with new eyes, deeper than human eyes.  Judging things through your own past experience is just that – you OWN past experience, not everyone else’s.  And why judge through the past when the past is gone?  Try to see things like a child, as if for the very first time, with wonder, without judgment, and you might learn a new perspective that allows you to forgive, to accept, to open to a broader way of being.  Judgment does not buy the soul anything but more karma.  Understanding, acceptance, and allowance, are the ways of the soul.  If what you may conceive of as God does not judge us for our errors, why should be different?  We are Divine within – judgment only comes from the ego and generally is a reflection of our own issues.

Begin this new year with fresh eyes; move away from the past and into this present, for it truly is all you have.  And don’t worry about tomorrow, for when it gets here, if it does, it never ends up being quite what you thought it would be anyway.  And always, the reason for the worry is resolved one way or the other, depending on your own vibration.  If you carry gratitude in your heart, suffering melts away.  If you carry good intention in your heart, suffering melts away.  Be mindful of your thoughts and keep them kind and forgiving, and suffering melts away.  Watch that your words are kind and positive, for they are a boomerang, just as your thoughts are.  These things will help alleviate suffering.

Now is all we have! Live in the present moment and meet your heart there, for it dwells not in the yesterday, nor in the tomorrow, but is beating as you take this breath - right now.  It will be the beginning of the end of any suffering.

I highly recommend Michael A. Singer’s book, The Untethered Soul for everyone.  Bear with it, for it is not an easy read, but read it to the very end, for it might change your life.  More than likely, it will.  Also anything by Eckhart Tolle.  And both books by Robert Schwartz, The Soul’s Plan and The Soul’s Gift I highly recommend, though I would begin with the first.  And may what you see as suffering in your life or in any other’s be transformed.

Love and blessings to you all.