suffering

All Posts Tagged ‘suffering’

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January 2, 2025

There is physical suffering and there is psychological suffering. When physical suffering takes place, if it is not too intense, one may be able to live with it happily, despite it being somewhat annoying. I am 73, with both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis… so i know how stiffness and pain can manifest. Too many of us, however, are conditioned to run from pain at all costs. We overemphasize escaping from pain and we rely too heavily on drugs and such. The Universe has a set volume/amount of pain (tied to the requisite nature of reality). All pain is not just personal; it is shared by all… it is part of all. So being in pain is noble in a big way (since one is paying a price for us all), but many separative people don’t see it that way. Then too, physical pain can be a warning signal, indicating that something needs to be done to help the body function better.

There is also psychological pain and suffering. There’s the pain of loneliness, the pain of fear, the pain of depression, the pain of boredom. Interestingly, a mindful entity of holistic, orderly wisdom usually does not have much in the way of psychological suffering. Such a wise being perceives that, if fear is taking place, such fear is not something separate from what one is. One is the actual fear. If loneliness occurs, one is not something separate from that loneliness; the perceiver is the perceived. Looking with (and “as”) a fabricated distance and separation at loneliness or fear just makes the mind accept a division and conflict that isn’t genuine. That conflict doesn’t help with regard to inner stability and wholeness. True integrity does not fall for illusory separations and needless conflict.

In understanding disorder and suffering, we — in a big way — metamorphize beyond it.

**Timeless … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2025**

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Living with Suffering

June 1, 2023

9 comments

Suffering is part of life. We all suffer. We suffer physically and we suffer psychologically. Physical suffering is unfortunate oftentimes, and often some of us get more than our fair share. When one suffers, one is not just suffering alone; the whole of humanity and life shares in that suffering; it is the suffering of life. Sometimes, we automatically run from suffering in a robotic, conditioned, thoughtless way. If one is intelligent, one can allow physical suffering to flower naturally somewhat (without just being totally negative about it). Physical suffering is often a signal… and we need not be too overwhelmed with some of these signals (as long as we are doing everything we can to live a healthy and responsible life).

Additionally, there is psychological suffering. The mind can suffer with grief, with fear, with sorrow, with depression, loneliness, and boredom. Habitually manifesting as grief and sorrow can, for instance, take its toll on the body; it can cause high blood pressure, strokes, and all kinds of things. One’s sorrow, one’s fears, one’s grief… are all not separate from what one actually is. One can, without effort, psychologically die to grief, fear, to sorrow (and such things). And merely dwelling in (and “as”) thoughts is a form of sorrow. Thoughts are merely virtual, symbolic images, and existing merely as virtual, symbolic images is intrinsically a form of suffering. And thoughts (and psychological images in time) are usually the sources of fear and anxiety. One can psychologically die to the endless chattering of thoughts; such a dying is inherently a blessing. Look at things directly and not just through a psychological screen of learned images and labels. It is the images and labels that take effort to manifest, which is not the case with direct perception and pure seeing. But we make effort into an endless habit and then claim that we can’t exist without it. Effort takes time; wise (pristine) perception is timeless. Compassion is instantaneous (and has an element of timelessness), by the way.

**Coprolite — Fossilized Dinosaur Dung … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023**

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Regarding Physical Handicaps or Disorders…

August 11, 2021

39 comments

If you happen to have a physical handicap, ailment, or disorder, one does not think that it would be prudent to take it out on, or blame, some “higher power.” There is a sacredness that exists, but one does not feel that it interferes much with the natural, organic occurrence of things. If it did, there would be no end to the multitude of illnesses and physical problems that needed fixing and if it fixed everything, for example, we would be living in a cartoon-like, plastic-plant-like world where things were disgustingly artificial.

My wonderful wife, before she passed, had all kinds of physical problems (and handicaps). I, more than once, advised her not to take it out on that higher order and vast intelligence. By the way, things happened in the past, such as adult neighbors getting in front of my wife with their car as she was walking down our rural road for exercise, and laughingly mocking the way she walked, stopping their car in front of her to block her walking. This kind of thing is unbelievable, especially from adults. (By the way — and this is not mere politics — i was not at all appreciative of the way Trump, in the past, openly mocked and disparagingly imitated that poor man who was handicapped.) There are some people out there with no hearts. It is very sad.

I was a teacher for students with multiple handicaps, and i occasionally would talk to them about their situation. Some were as intelligent as you or i but, for example, were quadreplegic, not being able to move their arms or legs with coordination and not being able to feed themselves. Yet we got them to laugh often and feel good about themselves. Let me tell you, when anyone of us humans (including animals) suffers… the whole world suffers in a way and (in a way) shares in that suffering. We can help each other and all do better; all of us are like the fingers of one hand, and although the fingers seem separate, in reality they are not separate.

If you happen to have handicaps, keep your head held high; do not feel inferior; please do not blame that sacredness. Let’s face it, in a big way all of us humans have some kind of handicap(s). (Many of my students, while being severely handicapped, smiled more often and were kinder and far more caring than a lot of the ordinary, so-called normal businessmen that i met in the outside world.)

**Katy did it again, but i didn’t. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2021**

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Suffering and Beyond

August 28, 2020

17 comments

We all suffer in the journey of life. The rich and the poor suffer. The rich may think that they suffer less, but what are they rich in? If they are well-to-do with lots of money but are short on real compassion, insight, and wisdom, are they truly rich? Most of us were miseducated on what true richness in life entails; then we go through life bereft of the real treasures, empty of real substance.

Animals (other than our own species) also suffer. Many are currently suffering because of the overindulgence of man… too much cement, too much pollution, too much loss of habitat. There is also the competition in nature between the many animals; many have to struggle among themselves for survival. It’s a tough world out there.

When one looks with barriers, through psychological walls of separation (as one has been mistaught to), then one doesn’t do much about the suffering. Ironically, these very walls (i.e., psychological walls) tend to enclose and greatly contribute to one’s own so-called personal suffering.

True intelligence not only helps much suffering to end in the exterior world — via compassion and action (because “others” aren’t so separate any longer) — but also transcends suffering internally (or psychologically, so to speak). When a mind goes beyond crude ways of perceiving, then a totally different dimension may take place (that is — to a large degree — beyond the friction and pain of regular life). A mind that consists of reaction after reaction is bound to suffer; a mind that does not always react like a programmed robot may transcend much suffering.

**Vertical Ascension … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020**

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Beyond Self Suffering…

June 4, 2017

19 comments

We all suffer. We suffer physically and psychologically. None of us escape it. Here is a little secret about the true nature of suffering: It is neither just yours nor mine; it is universal. It is our suffering. We all share in it… some more than others. When one of us suffers… we all suffer.

So many of us habitually run from suffering. We use all kinds of legal and illegal drugs to escape from suffering. There are plenty of drug-addicted and alcohol addicted people in the world, many of whom insist that they don’t have a problem and can stop whenever they wish to. Instead of habitually fleeing from suffering, few of us have embraced it without separation, without deep-seated bias and friction. Of course, if suffering is overwhelmingly intense (physically), then one would naturally not care to embrace it or have much of a relationship with it. A wise mind, however, may act — and not merely react — to milder forms of suffering in ways unlike what most people do.

Unlike most minds, the wise mind rarely suffers psychologically. A mind that is wise — due to understanding itself and its contents — is of a vast, immense order. Such order is a flame that incinerates the chaotic disorder that psychological suffering feeds upon; hence, psychological suffering, for such a mind, dissipates. Order doesn’t easily manifest as disorder. A mind that is truly orderly rarely suffers.

Thinking, in human beings, stems from (and involves) problem-solving. Thinking is a tool. Many of us continue to think (and entertain thought) even when thinking is no longer necessary. This strict adherence to thought/thinking is a distorted habit that nourishes all kinds of psychological disorder. Thinking is largely symbolic and representative; merely existing as one symbol after another (in sequence) is much like substituting symbols and signs for the real thing. Such substitution rarely leads to lasting joy and pristine revelry; accepting shadows as reality rarely leads to sunlit bliss. Too many of us were educated wrongly; thinking is only a tool; it need not be the essence of consciousness. If you have made tools as the essence of your consciousness, you are bound to suffer.

A wise mind can exist beyond the tools, beyond the shadows, beyond mere symbols and abstractions. Such a mind is beyond suffering (though it has immense empathy); it never needs to take recreational drugs, alcohol, or take antidepressants. Wisdom begins when psychological suffering ends.

Diminutive wildflowers (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Diminutive wildflowers (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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The Carnival without gates…

January 19, 2014

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