Anyone one on planet Earth right now is very familar with suffering, probably our own but if not, the suffering of many directly around us or of the world. Suffering is so inherent in our world that it is only recently that I came to understand the saying, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. What does that mean? I have studied A Course in Miracle/ The Way of Mastery for almost two decades yet the concept of allowing eluded me. Moving beyond suffering means allowing things to be as they are, recognizing that the Mystery is always designed to serve us in waking up to our Divine nature. Now when in the midst of intense suffering it can be neigh impossible to see this. Yet over time as suffering becomes unbearable, the realization will dawn that there is a doorway out. It is not easy to see so be patient. I have come to know all arrives in divine timing which is generally wayyyy different from human timing. We want freedom NOW if not yesterday. I wish I could erase all the times I blamed myself, doubted myself, beat myself up for being a throwback, a dense slow poke who just couldn’t get it. I now see that each step, each day was necessary to bring me to being 35 days without suffering. In that period I have had very uncomfortable days, very painful hours yet no suffering. What does that mean? It means I was not resisting the moment; I let it be as it was and somehow trusted all was well, that the discomfort was serving me in some inexplicable way. When I am in that place there is no thought that this will never end, that I can’t bear it anymore, etc. I am just in the moment, not liking it, not enjoying it but allowing it. I think the statement to love what rises can be confusing, at least for me. I do not love exhaustion, pain, uncertainty, challenge yet when I see it as serving me, as finite, as leading me inexorably to the full remembrance of Who I am then, yes, I can remain at peace with it. I can release control and allow the Mystery to do its thing to wake me up fully out of the dream of suffering and limitation. So I say, yes and amen, let’s just get on with it. And then I ride the wave of what arises. As my friends will tell you, that is my favorite expression. I ride choppy waves, huge one, calm, turbulent, smooth, what ever arises, I surf it Home to mySelf.
remembering the joy of being
