Understand Your Pain

Understand Your Pain

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Anyone who is on the spiritual path has to cross the ocean of suffering. The deep pain that one feels piercing through his being. But again, there’s the ignorance which kind of covers us, and we don’t even realize how knee-deep in pain we all actually are. That’s why they say, “Ignorance is bliss!”. But, once you see deeply into yourself, through all your illusions, there it is—an enormous pain. The pain of this life, the pain of not being able to find fulfillment, true love, true contentment and purpose. And to top it, we have innumerable fears, anxieties and daily frustrations. So, perhaps, love, joy, gratitude, contentment are not that much a reality for us as pain is. No? 

It’s as indisputable as death. There’s pain! In all of our hearts. From birth to death. In every stage, every relationship, every thing, there’s suffering. And that’s what was Buddha’s insight—the first Noble Truth—that all life is suffering. 

It requires enormous intelligence to be free of all suffering and live as though untouched by it; but only a little ignorance to bear with it, to go on with it. And that’s the sad part, ignorance is easy. It comes easily. But that means, you’re living foolishly, blindly. What’s the use of such a life? 

Wisdom comes out of understanding—all that there is to understand about yourself: your pains, fears, desires, emotions and confusions. So, if you want to transform your suffering into a spiritual possibility, start understanding your suffering. From the most obvious of emotional pains to the deep-rooted complex ones. Go to the root. Enquire into yourself. And as you dive deep into the dark corridors of your own self, you’ll be wiser and more sorted out. You’ll gain that clarity which no book or man can give you. 

So, it’s important not to run away from our pains. If we run from it, we’ll never understand it. And until you understand, it remains unresolved. That’s a deep truth: that whatever you leave unresolved, keeps manifesting in your life. Therefore, understand your pain. And when you’ll come to that understanding, you’ll see, pain is the shadow of ignorance. As long as there is even a little bit of ignorance about your actual nature, there will be suffering in some way or the other. It’s inevitable.

Pain itself is not the problem, please see. It’s just a sign that you’re still in ignorance. The real problem is ignorance. 

With this I end my post. I hope all this heavy stuff didn’t give you a headache! Relax…you can go slowly. Just complete your understanding, that’s all.  

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Thank you.

Image Credit: istockphoto