Excerpt from the book: Truth
Life is Pain
By Ross Bishop
When he was asked the meaning of life the Buddha answered by saying "Life is pain."
Why is this so? What is the source of our pain and suffering? We tend to view pain
and suffering as negative things, and this is certainly understandable, but the
Buddha was saying something different than that. Fear naturally creates resistance.
When we become afraid we close off, we shut down. And when we close off to life we
inevitably create pain for ourselves. A tight muscle will sprain, a relaxed one
will not.
So, pain is a part, and one might argue a vital and essential part, of life
because it warns us about the places where we are contracted, where we close
off to the truth, where we are out of harmony. The Buddha was correct because
if we did not separate it would be because we had no fear and we would not
need to be here on earth. So yes "Life is pain" but it does not have to be
a bad thing.
This does not mean that to become enlightened one must become a spineless
jellyfish. In fact, it is quite the opposite. One can be strong without the
rigidity of resistance. That is real strength. Not having resistance actually
makes one stronger. True power does not throw up walls to people or to life;
it embraces them. Nature is the most powerful of all things because it embraces
everything. So does an infant or a puppy. The power in Christ's message comes
from its universality.
Perhaps you have noticed that if you do not deal with an issue it will
return in a more intense form to confront you. You are lovable and you
are eventually going to have to accept that truth. It may be in the next
lifetime but trust me, it's not going to go away. As has been said, "You
will meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it." So, you will
have to face this issue somewhere, sometime. But "facing it" does not mean
confronting it. As we shall see, ego issues cannot be confronted; they can
only be transcended.
The great founder of the martial art Aikido, Morehei Ueshiba, even in his later
years was exquisite in his practice of one of the most complex of all the
martial arts. One day a student asked him "Master, how is it that you never
seem to be off?" Ueshiba thought for a moment and replied "But I do make
mistakes! I get off all the time! The secret is that I correct so quickly,
no one notices." Ueshiba was so open to the moment, so aware of himself
and his surroundings, that he could correct and change a misjudgment almost
instantly, even under conditions of extreme physical confrontation. It
wasn't about flawless perfection, or always doing it right, it was about
being aware and making the changes necessary to maintain harmony with changing
surroundings. Adaptation is living perfection.
Think about a surfer riding a wave. In each moment the surfer is confronted
with a rapidly changing complex of forces, each of which attack his equilibrium
and threaten to catapult him head first into the water. The surfer's task is to
be so in tune with the moment-by-moment changes in the environment that he can
instantaneously respond and correct in order to maintain his balance. If he is
really tuned in, the surfer will make many minor corrections in each moment so
that he does not have to make big corrections later. As Seneca wrote "It is not
because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare
that things are difficult."
That is the principle of a happy life and that is the challenge you face in
dealing with your fear. Fear causes us to become rigid and stiff (physically
and emotionally). We hold back, we do not respond in the moment. If our surfer
becomes afraid and up tight or tries to muscle his way through the situation,
the massive power of the ocean will simply toss his disharmonious miniscule human
energy into the drink. Thus, it is with life.
Although the Creator has given us all many blessings, it is necessary that you
experience and accept grace or enlightenment or whatever you choose to call it,
for yourself. It is the only way you will trust what you know. The benefits of
doing that are quite remarkable. In those beings who have made the transition we
see an enormous change, something out of all proportion to the considerable effort
that they have invested or the pain that they may have endured.
Many of these concepts have been understood for a long time in "primitive"
cultures that we tend to ignore. In those cultures the disruptive or troubling
occurrences we have been discussing would be attributed to "soul loss." Soul
loss is a separation from part of the vital core caused by things like trauma,
psychological disturbance, emotional pain and even witchcraft. This vacated
region within us can become toxic if not attended to, and lead to disease.
People of The Iroquois Nation speak of the resentment created when a soul is
thwarted or otherwise kept from its natural path. Our equivalent would be the
soul longing for peace and contentment. To the Iroquois, the conflict between
the conscious will (ego) and the thwarted natural soul is what leads to disease.
In that same light Kat Duff speaks of the Nahuatl Indians:
The Nahuatl peoples believe that we are born with a physical heart, but
have to create a deified heart by finding a firm and enduring center within
ourselves from which to lead our lives, so that our hearts will shine through
our faces, and our features will become reliable reflections of ourselves.
Otherwise, they explained, we wander aimlessly through life, giving our hearts
to everything and nothing, and so destroy them; . .
Kat Duff, The
Alchemy of Illness, (NY, Random House: 1993), p. 136.
From
Truth © 2003 Blue Lotus Press.
Reproduction is permitted with attribution