Can I live with this suffering forever? 

 

 

One of the most basic human instincts is to resist suffering, to fight it, to want to get rid of it. 

 

In reality, suffering is simply appearing to ‘bring Awareness to something’. From the perspective of Awareness (if it can be said to have a perspective), suffering is not positive or negative. And yet, the mind comes up with reasons to remove the suffering, and makes it ‘unwanted’ or ‘bad’. The next step is then to try and ‘transcend’ the suffering, to turn it around, to reach a better physical or mental state. However, that is not how things work. In most cases, this so-called ‘transcendance’ of the suffering is simply its transformation into a different form. 

 

After having done all that is necessary to alleviate the suffering, the true and only way to deal with suffering that keeps reappearing is to ask the question: ‘Can I live with this forever?’. To a human mind, the answer will always be ‘no’. To Awareness, the answer will always be ‘yes’.

 

*To clarify: physical pain is suffering of the body. Emotional pain is suffering of the mind.