A Prominent Idea

Heavenletter #980 Published on: June 28, 2003
God said:

If the world did not have the prominent idea that suffering is a major part of life, would you know suffering so well?

If the concept of suffering did not exist, would suffering be so far flung? If suffering had not been ordained in the mind of man, where would it exist? Can suffering exist on its own?

Suffering is a weight upon you. You are perhaps suffering at this moment or you are just finished with a streak of it or you are bracing yourself for the next bout.

You do not believe in the possibility of life on earth without suffering. You may believe that suffering takes a breather now and then, but you strongly believe in its might. It is inevitable, you say.

Death of the body is inevitable, and you tie that to suffering, and therefore you believe that suffering is inevitable. You consider yourself practical. How practical is it really to suffer? What does suffering change? Why would anyone choose it? Who said it had to be tied to life? You say you do not choose suffering. You say it is foisted upon you. Yet where would it exist apart from your thought? Suffering is something that has to be adopted. It is not what you were born for or with.

Suffering is a state of mind. Who is responsible for the state of your mind? Who has authority over it? I know you think well-being and suffering are conditions outside you, and that you are their pawn. It certainly seems so to you. Yet, if things seem one way to you, can they not seem another?

Suffering isn't an incident that happens. Suffering is where you store the incident.

You package events of life. You wrap them this way or that. You put them in the cooler or you put them in the oven or you put them on the table top as a centerpiece. You make certain events the centerpiece of your life. Who makes you do this? What benefit does suffering give you? If you feel pain, must you in addition suffer for it? Unladen yourself of suffering. You do not have to be tied to it.

I agree with you that there is too much suffering in the world. Where We disagree is that I say you don't have to have it, and you say you do.

When you are cutting an apple, and you cut your finger, you don't think you have to suffer. You do not bemoan your cut. You don't think much about it. You know very well that it will heal. You divide wounds into major and minor and allocate suffering accordingly. Perhaps you can allocate differently.

At the same time as you expect to suffer in life, you are amazed when anything you don't want befalls. You rant and rail about it. You stamp your foot. You protest. "How could God do this! And how could God do this to me?" your heart cries.

It is inevitable that you will be healed from whatever has signaled you to suffer. The very temporariness of life on earth in a body attests to that.

If, at present, you do not believe that you can remove suffering from your life, is it possible that you can accept that you can make its stay shorter? If you cannot abolish suffering at this time, can you perhaps depend on it less?

The fact that it is impossible for the Truth of you to suffer gives you small comfort, I know, but, as much as you are able, let go of suffering. Anchor love instead.

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A powerful antidote to suffering

On March 29th, 2009 Chuck Gebh... says:

This is an interesting, philosophical letter, but also one of huge practical importance.

It is important because it is very hard to be very effective channels of God’s love while we are suffering intensely and intense suffering is a common occurrence in many of our lives.

It is practical because it gives us useful, intellectual understanding to do something about our suffering.

First, we must be sure we are clear about the difference between pain and suffering. In my experience, in our culture, these two words are taken to be almost synonymous, yet they are not and this letter points us to their very different natures.

Pain is a natural and necessary part of our creaturehood. It is actually a blessing that makes life in the physical world possible. It alerts us to vital threats and guides us quickly towards safer actions. Pain protects us and we should thank God for giving it to us.

Suffering, however, is a different story entirely. While pain is a natural part of our body’s physiology, as God says, here: “Suffering is a state of mind.” God explains this further by saying: “You package events in your life.” This statement is not quite so direct, but it seems clear that it means we react to painful events and experiences in our lives by often making more out of them then they need to be. We take an experience and generate all kinds of fearful images about it for our future. Most of the time, we are not even aware that we are doing this. Often what pain means to us is potential loss.

For example, when we have a serious automobile accident and break bones and injure organs, often lurking in the back of our minds is the fear that we will not heal completely and we imagine the permanent loss of some of our natural freedoms of bodily action. And, further, when we are in pain, it is easy to imagine that this pain will never go away, or even get progressively worse. Any pain or disability also implies to us the specter of our eventual and approaching physical demise, and many of us are too easily terrified of our view of this potential threat.

The reality is that the fears of imagined loss lodge in our minds and bodies. These fears can and do slow down or even prevent healing. These fears and negative emotions can become entrenched and become the cause of permanent pain and disability. It is as if our fears become self-fulfilling prophesies for us. To make matters worse, when pain becomes suffering it is a multiplier and dramatic extender of our discomfort.

We are given, in this letter, two important tools to rid ourselves of unnecessary suffering. One is that we can make an unconscious process conscious and be aware of the links in the chain that result in our suffering. Knowing that our mind takes a very active part in creating our suffering is a powerful awareness. To know that the exterior events of our lives, while possibly being responsible for our pain, are never responsible for our suffering is empowering in and of itself.

A second tool, at least equally important, is the realization that, as God puts it: “It is inevitable that you will be healed from whatever has signaled for you to suffer.” We are assured that all pain and all suffering are temporary. Reflecting on the Truth of our eternal nature and the temporary nature of our problems is powerful calming medicine. Like pain, death is a natural part of life and makes life possible. If there is no other remedy, death is also a release.

This awareness and these realizations, as they grow in us can: “Remove suffering from your life.” We can better follow our Creator’s request: “….let go of suffering. Anchor love instead.”

Wow! This letter is dynamite!.........Chuck