Everything has a purpose in the universe, including suffering
Suffering can manifest or mask itself in many ways…sadness, frustration, anger, anxiety, apathy, boredom, dissatisfaction, complaints, criticism, etc. or, in extreme ways, like torture, addictions, and hunger, which are still present in many parts of this planet.
This energy is so well integrated into our lives that it seems to be an inherent part of existence itself. As unpleasant as these physical and emotional sensations might be, they are the neurological adaptive answers needed to protect us from the damage we are doing to ourselves.
Human free will, along with a biological interest for self-preservation is programmed in our nature to ensure our survival. However, the same qualities originated in nature can also lead us to commit atrocities.
What if instead of seeing God as a cosmic judge who punishes us for our “bad” deeds or a whimsical chess master playing with our lives according to some mysterious plan, we think of God as the power of being oneself – the information of existence – a power that supports all existence but never makes a choice regarding which unlucky events can be changed?
Thus the issue of evil ultimately becomes a matter of perspective: from a micro point of view, we regret humanity’s suffering, but from a macro point of view, we know that this suffering is part of the structure of existence itself, an existence that as a whole is perfect. The nature of existence is such that humanity must be free.
To attain total freedom, we have under a perfect process, the ability to experience duality – mere interpretations of good and bad – and further ourselves from God, the true foundation of who we really are. This way, the reality of evil and suffering is built on the same path of life as a requirement for it to happen. We thus develop, through experience, the ability to understand the neutrality of Love.
Understanding suffering
Why do we suffer?
Suffering is the result of mental conception, a package of beliefs that prevent us from seeing life as it is.
Limitations acquired from our development process, prevent us from seeing the reality of life in a neutral way. They also prevent us from dealing with life challenges with the best energy available to learn and evolve.
We suffer because we do not accept, and fight against what is and because we interpret facts from learned limitations believing we know when in reality we don’t know.
If we are not happy in this life it means that we don’t know how to accept reality.
Reality is made of all the events around us; reality is neutral, nor good or bad. Our way to evaluate reality is however not neutral. if we don’t evaluate it from a neutral point of view, we would never find inner peace, driving us to conflict. If there is conflict, there is suffering and, if there is suffering it is because we do not know how to.
Purpose of suffering
“Everything existing in this universe serves a purpose” – Gerardo Schmedling
Suffering is completely useless and inefficient in the process of solving “conflicts”, otherwise known as challenges. Because of the fact that it does not produce any kind of positive effect, suffering is absolutely necessary to discover our own internal limitations.
Suffering is a tool for the evolution of conscience and serves three important purposes:
1. It prevents the evolution of conscience from stopping
If pain did not exist, our physical body could be injured and destroyed without us being aware. This means that pain serves the purpose of 1) to protect our physical body from being deeply hurt and 2) to lead us to learn how to take care of our body to avoid feeling pain.
Just like pain is a tool to prevent our body from having more injuries, suffering is a tool as well to prevent the evolution of conscience from stopping or for the learning process to last longer than required.
Suffering has a limit – law of saturation – which prevents the mind from suffering more. This enables the person to make the decision to stop suffering and start seeking the necessary information to achieve internal change through understanding and to come closer to a state of inner peace.
When our mind is saturated with suffering, we can start walking the path of freedom.
2. It measures the individual’s level of ignorance (not knowing)
The level of suffering and internal conflict gives an exact measure of the individual’s state of ignorance. Lower levels of suffering and conflict mean lower levels of ignorance and therefore, a process experienced with less confrontation.
When we renounce to suffering, we become aligned with external situations of great satisfaction and peace.
Suffering is the result of falsehood. Every thought bringing suffering to our mind is false.
3. It enables the recognition of truth
In order to recognize the existence of what truth really is, it is necessary to experience the contrast of what truth is really not. In other words, it’s mandatory to compare what it IS with what it is NOT to be able to identify clearly the difference between true and false. This is a mental process, and we say mental because true and false are in the mind of the person and not in external world events of physical matter. Therefore, the technique consists in being able to tell with ease the difference between true and false through the feelings we experience while we face different situations or circumstances of life, just by seeing if we suffer or if we are at peace in a state of acceptance and valuing (law of love).
“Truth will set you free”.
Every thought bringing real peace and harmony is the truth.
What’s left if there is no suffering?
- Total efficiency in dealing with vital energy and with the process of learning and evolution.
- Discovery of the great potential that lies within us.
- Profound valuing of all that is (ego always wants what it doesn’t have and life always gives us what we need to learn to be happy)
- Expansion of abundance as a result of our greater ability to serve.
Transcending Suffering
We always have the choice to decide. Decide to change the world so it suits our beliefs or decide to change our inner self to accommodate ourselves to the world as it is.
How can I release myself from suffering?
- By suffering enough.
- By making the choice of not suffering anymore.
- By applying a new formula.
- By verifying the results obtained.
If applying the same formula generates a “problematic” or dissatisfying result, then why keep the same formula?
When we decide to accept a new method, we decide to accept new information. When we obtain better results after applying this information, the former concept is dead because it will never be used again. This is how concepts die and this is how we are dying instant by instant; when all concepts finish dying, we end up in a permanent state of birth.
In order to develop absolute happiness, we need to live in a place where nobody is happy; in order to achieve absolute peace, we need to live in a place where nobody is peaceful and to learn how to love, we need to be in a place where nobody knows how to love. That’s called the perfect place for our spiritual development because if there’s no challenge, no test, no training, there’s no possibility for development. When our development is complete, all tests are passed and transcended, and cannot be repeated since they are no longer necessary.
Pain and suffering lead us to the discovery of universal laws.
