Suffering is a Mind-Made Entity
Dear Blessed One,
Fourteen years ago when I was first getting sober, I heard it said in the 12-step meetings that I was attending, “Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.” It used to really annoy me to hear someone say that. I was so identified with my past that my mind would say, ‘they have no idea how incredibly painful and difficult my life has been!’ It didn’t take too long for this annoying little saying to begin seeping into my consciousness.
I began seeing that yes, painful situations arise in life, it’s inevitable. However, the suffering I was experiencing was the effect of the thoughts I was having about the painful situations. My mind was having a party with all the painful events and I was the guest of honor.
I didn’t know at the time that I didn’t have to believe the thoughts or that I could let them just drift on by without following them or creating a story in my head. One drama would be fed by more thoughts and it would expand into a great disaster causing me anxiety, fear, and many emotions!
Over a period of time, I finally realized that if I could let life be as it is and not fight against what’s here, screaming that it has to be different for me to be happy, the lack of resistance itself opened a door to peace. Just allowing and being with whatever life expresses in the moment, even the difficult situations, stirred me out of the hypnotic trance of all the thoughts and stories about how it “should” be. The ever present peace and stillness could now be noticed as I moved out of the past (or future) and dropped into the present moment.
All it takes is awareness to begin cracking the illusion of suffering. Suffering is a mind-made entity. Examining it reveals its true nature. When the mind rests, (allows thoughts to come and go without going along for the ride), we can touch into our true nature, the place that knows no suffering and has no resistance to pain. It’s all part of this glorious human experience
Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee
“True freedom and the end of suffering is living in such a way as if you had completely chosen whatever you feel or experience at this moment. This inner alignment with Now is the end of suffering… Suffering cracks open the shell of ego, and then comes a point when it has served its purpose. Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.”
~Eckhart Tolle