Suffering in Life

Freedom from Suffering

Life on earth is the perfect University for Enlightenment (read The Magical Gate to the Best School for Enlightenment), and to help us realize the perfection of the moment and our perfect, divine nature, life often has to use pain and suffering as a tool.  This is simply because it is so easy to go through life on autopilot, asleep to the reality of the moment, that pain is needed to wake us up.  Even those who have great passion for the Truth, are sometimes in need of shock therapy to bring them back on the path when they stray.

As I discussed in the article, The True Purpose of Relationships, the pain in relationships is there to help you understand your attachments and this is true of pain and suffering in general.  The more attached you become, the more you depend on something for your pleasure, security and your ego, the more you are centered around rewards and achievement, the more you are setting yourself up for suffering.  The thing to realize is not that you should do nothing in your life, but that you have to find the art of doing great things without involving the ego.

There are many real life stories of how pain and suffering were instrumental in helping people realize the Truth, although I am not saying pain is necessary for enlightenment.  What I am suggesting is to look at pain and suffering in a different way.  To view it as a tool in helping you understand your attachments, use it to learn valuable life lessons and to realize that the only way to be free of suffering is to realize the true non-dual nature of reality.

As I mentioned, not even great yogis or spiritual giants are spared from pain as a reminder.  A particular yoga master, who got too busy setting up schools and ashrams, one day was delivered a heart attack, which reminded him of the value of the life he had, and the importance of fulfilling the true purpose here of achieving enlightenment.  In other words, it is easy to get caught up in endless activity, to the extent that one’s personal practice suffers and one is no longer on track.  This is when life strikes. 

So the best way to avoid being slapped back onto the path, is simply to not get off it :-).  Stay with the great now, go with the flow, doing what needs to be done intelligently, without engaging the ego.  This is the only path to ultimate freedom and escaping the suffering of life.

If you need a place to get started, feel free to check out the free online yoga and meditation classes here on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga.