Is Suffering an Integral Part of Life?
As human beings, we believe that suffering is inevitable. We assume that we must endure the pain of the body, the misery of the mind, and the agony of the ego. We have accepted suffering as an unavoidable part of life. We believe that life will always alternate between pleasure and pain, sunshine and rain, loss and gain, again and again. Certainly, we must accept whatever comes our way—it is our Karma being settled.However, we must go beyond this understanding to realize a deeper truth: suffering itself is a choice, just as unhappiness is. It is up to us whether we suffer or not. So, is it possible that we don’t suffer? It is — we can live in a state of perennial peace and bliss. This state of eternal bliss, a seamless ecstatic joy, is known as Ananda. It is attained when we live in consciousness of the truth. Unfortunately, we remain ignorant of the very existence of such a state.We live like puppets, failing to use our intellect to realize the truth. When we suffer, it is not because God wants us to suffer. Nor is it due to bad luck or random events. We suffer because of ignorance. The Buddha’s teaching —this Samsara is Dukkha, meaning the world is full of suffering—often reinforces our belief that suffering is our destiny. We even accept the idea that we come into this world to suffer because a child is born crying, not laughing. What we fail to realize is that there is a way out of suffering altogether. We do not have to be miserable. What, then, is the way?The way is the realization of the truth. It is Enlightenment. Such realization opens the door to peace and bliss. But why do we suffer? We suffer physically because we believe we are the body. When the body experiences pain, we suffer with it. But if we realize that we are not the body, even though the body may feel pain, we will not suffer. We also suffer because of the joy stealer, the rascal mind. Like a monkey, it jumps from thought to thought, bombarding us with nearly fifty thoughts a minute, amounting to around fifty thousand thoughts a day. Yet the mind itself is an illusion; it does not truly exist. Have you ever seen your mind? Of course not. What we call the mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. When we stop thinking, when we become silent, when the mind is still, we escape the misery it creates. The monkey becomes a monk. Fear, anxiety, worry, stress disappear.The third cause of suffering is the ego. The ego torments us by agonizing us with anger, hatred, revenge and jealousy. It constantly shouts, ‘I, me, my, mine.’ But when we realize that the ego itself is born of ignorance and we enlighten it by realizing the truth, these toxic emotions disappear. Anger and hate cease to be. With the realization of the truth, the suffering of the body, mind and ego comes to an end.Sadly, very few are blessed enough to escape this triple suffering. Most of us remain trapped in the race to become an ace in the material chase. What must we do to be liberated from this misery and pain? We must embark on a sincere quest to answer the fundamental questions: Who am I? Why am I here?If we are earnest, dedicated, and sincere in this quest, guided by a Guru and blessed with Divine Grace, we will realize the truth—that we are the Divine Soul, a Spark Of Unique Life, not the body, mind and ego we believe ourselves to be. We are a part of SIP, the Supreme Immortal Power we call God. Once this enlightenment dawns, all suffering ceases. Not only are we freed from the triple suffering of the body, mind and ego, but we are also liberated from the Karmic cycle of birth and rebirth—the cycle that repeatedly brings us back to suffer again.Authored by: AiR – Atman in Ravi
