I had a very powerful dream a couple years ago and awoke with a single phrase in my head - a phrase so puzzling and wonderful that I had to write it down. The phrase was "Suffering is an illusion."
Let's look at it together.
This was an interesting statement - what did it mean. Buddha said that "life is suffering", the Hindu epics state that the world is nothing but 'Maya' (the Hindi equivalent of the word Illusion). Okay so...
Life = Suffering.
Life = Illusion
Suffering = Illusion.
Right?
Hm. Well let's look at suffering. What is suffering?
Suffering is any unwanted condition and the corresponding negative emotion. It is usually associated with pain and unhappiness, but any condition can be suffering if it is unwanted. Antonyms include happiness or pleasure.
(Wikipedia source)
Suffering, then, is caused by being in a condition or situation that you do not desire. So, let's look at this notion of what we desire. What we want.
Depends I guess on which part of yourself you're talking about. If we buy the notion that our spirit selves have set us out on a course in this life that will include both desirable and undesirable situations, but that we in face WANT to be in these situations to learn valuable spiritual truths, then nothing we experience, no matter how awful, is in fact UN-desired. It may not be desired by our conscious selves - our egos... But on some level it was our choice.
Of course there's also the natural argument that we're all in a false reality and therefore nothing is real because EVERYTHING is an illusion.
Who knows why my subconscious left me that message.. But it sure is fun to think about, n'est-ce pas?
By all means, if you have a better theory about my mysterious note to self - PLEASE share. Would mean the world.
Thanks,
Diana
2 comments:
I once read that suffering is fear of the future. Or more specifically, it's projecting our fears into the future. So if we have suffering surrounding money, we are projecting a fear that we will not have enough money to pay our bills or live the life we have. If we have suffering about how we look, we are projecting a fear that we will never be good enough. If we have physical suffering, we project a fear that we will always be ill or in pain or will die.
There's something about that theory that really resonates with me, because when I look at the thoughts that cause negative emotions in me at any given time, there's usually an element of worrying about the future in it (because if we believed that any situation is temporary and that we have control over turning it around, we would be able to be more reflective about the experience).
I've been reflecting on some recent trauma I had and what was most remarkable about it was that the only thing that really changed from the moment I was ok to the moment when I was a complete wreck was me. The day hadn't changed, my life hadn't really changed, my reaction to information and its impact on my expectations is what had changed. The way I went from suffering to feeling good was by making a choice about my reaction to those circumstances. The circumstances hadn't changed, but I decided to be happy because or despite of them.
I think that illustrates that suffering is an illusion in that the way we think and react to things creates the suffering, and if we change the way we think and react the suffering ends. It ties into your comment about desire and choice--about how we choose all of our experiences in the end. We may choose things that are difficult for us (consciously or not), but we also have a choice in the moment we encounter them to find thoughts and reactions that do not create negative emotions.
That's such a great way of putting it, Kimberly. You're absolutely right - suffering is entirely a state of mind, and like any other state of mind, it can be changed.
Cheers and thanks for sharing your wisdom with me.
Diana
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