IT SOUNDS GOOD, BUT…
Every human being on planet Earth seeks happiness. We all want to be free from suffering. A lot of us with a spiritual bend to our lives have made it our mission in life to do exactly that and help alleviate the sufferings of our fellow brothers and sisters. Call us concrete roses born in the struggle and budding beautifully in a world that is seemingly harsh. We adopt these religious ideologies and strive to, not only elevate ourselves, but raise the consciousness of those we come in contact with. This isn’t a phenomenon restricted to spiritual circles by any means as my WordPress feed has taught me time and again. There are philosophical minds with no belief in the Divine who are laboring just as tirelessly towards this aim as the intercessors of my own Pentecostal community.
We all have an aversion towards suffering. We dislike seeing good people go through terrifying conditions. I, myself, have a girlfriend with 4b Lymphoma at 32. Anyone who has ever loved a person with cancer can attest to how heartbreaking it is to watch them struggle with daily activities we conquer with ease. The world seems so unfair at times and it’s easy for us to lose sight of all the good happening around us as a result.
In truth, we’ve forgotten a fundamental piece of our reality. Life doesn’t always feel good and in spite of our best efforts that truth keeps creeping up time and time again. Dance this around a bit-
“It is because everyone under Heaven recognizes beauty as beauty, that the idea of ugliness exists.”
-Lao Tzu
-Looking at it in that light means everything we think of as one way or the other only appears so in contrast to something else. After all, what we call opposites are merely just two extremes of the same thing. Elephants are only big when they’re standing next to mice. However, we could load several of them onto a cargo plane and fly them to the opposite side of the globe. So, maybe by clinging to what feels good we are missing a valuable lesson meant to help us grow and move past our own limited perceptions of how life is supposed to be.
What does our aversion have to teach us?
COMPASSION ARISES FROM SUFFERING
A great deal of mystical experiences or global religions are actually spawned from these places of turmoil. How many people who have had near death experiences become devout members of their Religious communities? A bit of independent research into the matter will unearth tons of examples of this. In fact, a childhood friend of mine who we’ll call Hailey has a beautiful story on the matter I’d love to share with everyone at some point. Let’s dig a bit deeper…
Rav Yesha (Jesus Christ) wasn’t born into an easy time. Israel was an occupied territory under Roman occupation. Many of the locals were actually seeking a military leader who would free them. Now we all know Rome wasn’t overthrown for quite some time and it certainly wasn’t a revolt started from there but still… G-D sent His Son into a tumultuous time rich with civil unrest, social injustice and an inequality that would rock most of us to our cores.
Buddhism was straight up born in suffering. It was when Prince Siddhartha traveled into town and became aware of disease, aging, and all manners of suffering that he set out on his course. In fact, the Four Noble Truths pretty much line out how suffering results from our being born human. They even have jokes about it.
“Did you hear about the Buddhist Coroner who recently got fired?”
“No! Why?”
“Well she kept putting down the cause of death was birth.”
-LOL
My awakening was no different in regards to pain. My girlfriend of eleven years died from a MRSA infection. Her Mother immediately sued me for custody of our daughter and won because I was unfit. I blamed everyone and everything except for myself and my addiction. In fact, I ran from the pain, picked up a bottle and found a girlfriend who was completely okay with me smoking and drinking myself into oblivion. We got into loads of fist fights and I did all sorts of horrible things. Well, eventually, she moved someone else into my home and I assaulted him. She moved in someone else and I was arrested on felony charges. It was in the North Tower of Lew Sterrett where I awakened. After being discharged from TDCJ a year later Mystical Mindstate was born. How?
THE FREEDOM OF ACCEPTANCE
I am flawed to the max. I have failed as a Father, a boyfriend, a son and as a member of society. Each failure has taught me invaluable lessons that I am eternally grateful for now that the smoke has cleared. It’s because of my checkered gang banger past that I am so effective at what I do now. Why? Acceptance. There’s an old saying that dances around the rooms a lot that I’d like to share with you-
“We find our rock bottom when we finally stop digging.”
-Quips from AA
Think of those moments in your life where you have endured the most struggle. How did they define you? It is almost guaranteed that you are twice as likely to offer a hand to another who’s going through a similar fate as a result of your surviving it. Why? Because a strange thing happens when we reach out to help others heal. We realize old wounds start to close in doing so. All that begins because we, not only acknowledge they’re there, but accept that we actually grew from enduring them. Wisdom can be defined as knowledge coupled with experience and I have to agree with this concept. We grow through what we go through. We evolve and reach out from a place of compassion as a result.
So the next time misery rears its head invite it in for tea. Allow yourself to feel the full spectrum of your sorrow. It’s like turning into the skid when you hit a patch of ice; resistance will guarantee you wreck. So accept there is pain in your life. Once you’ve done that you’ll be able to look for the lesson and see clearly the path to freedom from bondage. I hope this helps. Peace be with you all.
Mystical Mindstate 