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Sunset... Damariscotta River... Maine
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We cycle through suffering and non-suffering in the spiritual life. Those not living a spiritual path also do. How those on a wisdom path experience them is different. We may cycle in and out of these many times in a day, several times in a minute, and repeatedly in a single time of meditation.
We progressively, even if slowly, suffer less through growing, through healing. Healing is the transformation of suffering, not its rejection. You are the alchemist of your life. Suffering is part of what you work with.
The other option is to continue suffering, increasing it, as though we have no choice but to be a suffering, struggling self. Many persons not only suffer, they have become it. Possibly, we all have had that experience.
To feel, so be aware of, these cycles of upset and bliss is a blessing. If we are hardened to our emotional pain, so ignorant of it, how can we heal? We listen to our inner pain. In fact, the more sensitive-hearted, so insightful, we become - which is a very good thing - the more we become mindful of the suffering around and within us. Thereby, we grow in compassion.
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Jewish Hasidic masters have given us wise guidance on working with these alternating, contrary states of suffering and non-suffering -
Rake the muke this way. Rake the muke that way. It will still be muck. In the time you are brooding, you could be stringing pearls for the delight of heaven.
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If the water is muddy, adding more mud will only make it muddier. So, we need to discern when to speak of our suffering and how much. Simply talking about our suffering from our suffering leads to more of the same suffering. We need to learn to sit and let the mud settle. This can be challenging when the pain is intense. We are, however, more healthy for doing it.
Likewise, thinking of and speaking of the positivity within us, even when we do not presently sense it, waters the seeds of positivity. Then, non-suffering increases. We, too, need to learn to sit quietly with the feelings of bliss. I call this "soaking" to provide a sensory image, like soaking in a warm bath.
In a group, a person with a substance use disorder spoke of dislike for meetings where persons would gather in recovery and talk about their addiction. She did not find that uplifting. This could be what she needed, however. Yet, she may have said, "I'm tired of hearing persons rake the muke repeatedly. Hearing all that doesn't help me at all."
I lived with people with an addiction for two years, and they enjoyed talking on and on about their addiction. I did not find it uplifting, yet mindful listening was a way to show compassion. I was not present to fix them but to support them in the means of healing they had committed to within their program. Hearing them did me no harm, but it might have had a negative influence on me earlier in life.
One would want to grow to be able to sit amid others raking muck and have insight into their suffering and one's own suffering, for suffering takes many faces but is one suffering. Each person decides how to live this compassion without the obligation to be other people's trash can. The stronger and wiser spiritually, the more able we are to practice this loving-kindness.
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The Christian scripture gives us an option other than raking muke. Philippians 4.8 (NLT) reads: "And now, dear [spiritual] brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts [think about, reflect on] on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about [ponder, reflect on] things that are excellent and worthy of praise."
The writer continues in the following verse, saying that by putting into practice the teaching given to them and seen in his life, the "God of peace" will be with them. Saying the "God of peace" means peace will be with them.
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We will not enjoy peace warring with thoughts and feelings. The founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov (b. 1698, Ukraine), taught the worshiper to break open the shell of even evil thoughts, find the root of that thought in the Source, and join it to prayer. So, if a person is distracted by sexual desire during silent contemplation, she is not to seek to drive that desire away; she is to know that such desire is but a fallen spark from the World of Love, which seeks to be uplifted in the ascent of prayer. The thought needs to be "purified in its root," so the energy animating it can be returned to the Source.
Hence, the Light animates all thought, feeling, and desire. We convert all emotions, wants, and thoughts, returning them to the Light. Hate, for example, is the illusion of love, the real. Anger is the appearance of pain. Lustful thoughts can hide a longing for beauty and connection, as well as repression of one's own sexuality. Aggression hides wounds overlaying one's original innocence. Rather than warring with desires and thoughts, we befriend, showing insight and compassion to the worlds within us.
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Suffering is a gift, not for a god has imposed it upon you but for what can become of it. If we work with befriending it rather than indulging it or blaming others for it, we co-create new creations with it.
We can choose peace. Being peaceful within, we are peace without. Through suffering, we can grow in peace. Through suffering, we can grow to suffer less. Suffering is not our nature. Bliss, quiet and content, is our nature.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2024. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
*Material on Baal Shem Tov from Dr. Arthur Holtz and Barry W. Holtz, Ed. & Trans. Your Word Is Fire: The Hasidic Masters on Contemplative Prayer.
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