Do we Need Suffering?

Suffering is necessary until you realize you don't need it any more.
-Eckhart Tolle

Does suffering serve a purpose?

Yes I believe it does....at first.  Suffering can wake us up. In my own life it took a certain amount of suffering to make me want to understand it so I could transcend it. If it wasn't for suffering I wouldn't be where I am right now...and despite what is happening around me....I like where I am.


How long does it take to realize this?

It was a slow journey for me but it doesn't always have to be.  Some people get it right away, in what A Course refers to as The Holy Instant.  My experience was more like a holy half- century(though it didn't always feel very holy lol). I am finally seeing what I need to see.

What is it that you are seeing?

I am seeing that my life situation comes from time and thought.  It is of the mind, more specifically the ego and  is wrought with "problems," with past imprisonment and future projection.  Man, the ego loves problems and mental chaos, doesn't it? It is  always looking for the problem in every moment to take us away from that moment.

What I am also seeing, however, is that there is a big distinction between my life situation and my life and I can step our of my life situation and into Life any time. Life situation is purely a mental construct...a story I created in my head.  Life is who I am.  As Eckhart Tolle says, You are life; you don't have a life.

Life is consciousness, awareness, of the Deeper I/ or universal Self .  Life situation is of the little I...and the mind, the ego.  There are no problems in the realm of the true Self.  The only problem is when the deeper I gets obscured.

Obscured by what?

It gets obscured by our mind stuff: our focus on this time idea (clinging to the past or projecting hope and fear into our so called futures), on thought, on doing and on our seeking things of the external world to fulfill what doesn't need to be fulfilled. Life is perfect as it is; you are perfect as you are right here, right now but this mind stuff covers it all up with layers and layers of dirt and grim over the most magnificent light. This perfect expression of Life, which we are, can not therefore be seen, heard, felt or expressed as long as it is covered by mind stuff. It is the mind stuff that causes the suffering....not Life.

Are you saying that Life is easy?

No. Life can be pretty challenging at times. It is not meant to be easy. Sure Life throws certain situations our way for whatever reason it does in its ultimate wisdom.  Sure ...those situations  may not always be pleasant.  Yet that is not what causes suffering. 

It is what this mind stuff does with what we are handed...that creates Dukkha. We place our distorted mental perceptions, judgments and fears on 'external circumstance'  to turn it into suffering.  We condemn it, we struggle against it, we resist it and we fight it...so we make what we are dealing with (or refusing to deal with) in the present moment the enemy.

We do that...Life doesn't.

So what do we do about the 'suffering'?

Step out of your life situation...just for a moment...because that is all there is....and into your Life.  Your Life is now...in this present moment.  It is not in yesterday and it is not in a future that will never come.  Life is not a story or a clump of moving thoughts in your head. It is stillness It is right here and right now.

Then when we truly realize that...we won't need suffering anymore.  We can transcend it.

Become aware of the present moment and become aware that you are awareness.

It is all good.


References

Tolle, Eckhart. (November, 2018) The Journey into Now.  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tKe_Tvtq8Q