DISCOVER THE PATH TO HAPPINESS
Can the mind be freed from storing the memories without ceasing to experience the new? Can it be a source of renewal instead of being just a storehouse?
Suffering occupies the largest portion of human memory because it is based on harsh experiences that left a clear impact on human way of thinking and his lifestyle. This is what my mind and your mind do all the time, but can the mind change the accustomed methodology of accumulating and storing suffering?
Suffering attacks us everywhere, we do not know how to confront it because we simply do not understand it. We resort to justify or evade it and when we fail in this or that, we work hard to glorify it.
Some societies resort to glorify suffering and consider it one of the sacred ways towards knowing God, they even value the person who suffers a lot and describing him as a praiseworthy person as he gets rid of his sins before the expected Day of Resurrection, which in itself is based on the concept of torment and suffering. However, this is so far from the real purpose of suffering and the real meaning of Resurrection Day as well.
Understanding the concept of suffering requires deep self-awareness and complete listening to everything that is happening around us. Most of people face suffering in a superficial way. Customs and traditions have contributed in rooting this superficial understanding of suffering and escaping into intellectual trends or attachment to false principals become the only available solution. When we fail to find a refuge to escape to, we build a wall around ourselves that prevents us from understanding the real meaning of suffering and the purpose of its existence.
“The superficial mind is unable to remove the bandage from the wound, a mind immersed in its ignorance does not face the true suffering, but rather the word of suffering.” Krishna Murti / The Life
Awareness of the concept of suffering and its purpose is enough not to make it a basis from which we start and a standard for our actions towards others. Awareness of suffering message ensures that bad experience we went through will not generalize to all similar experiences which gives us the ability to see what is happening clearly and understand it without storing it.
We are not happy, otherwise we would not search for happiness everywhere and in all faces. We surround ourselves with illusions, justifications and limit ourselves to material or moral ambitions. We long for happiness and search for it all the time despite the possessions, experiences and relationships we have. We want happiness at any cost and by any means, we surrender our minds to anyone who deceives us that they have it or know the way for it, whether they are politicians, economists, clerics or others.
The problem is in understanding suffering not in how to be happy. If we want to understand suffering, we must deal with its reality without rejecting or accepting it, without resisting it or reconciling with it or justifying its existence.
True happiness will appear when we listen to suffering, understand it, and thus understand the message of its existence. The essence of suffering is to accept the message for which suffering exists, not to accept suffering itself. Listening to suffering is the true path towards happiness.
When we reach this point of understanding, the fear of suffering will disappear. We will understand the reason for its existence without distracting the mind by searching for evaluations or labels for it.
At this stage of awareness, we will not find our suffering a strange, unexpected, or unfair event to complain about. When we realize the sacredness of ourselves, we will realize that suffering is not a part of us, not a fate, not a punishment but rather it is one of the means to correct the path and continue the journey towards sublimity.
