The Grace of Suffering

There is suffering in the world. Everyone, including ourselves goes through it. The question is – what do we do with it?

If we look at it through the eyes of our conditioned self which is dualistic in nature, we label it as bad and it must be changed. We then live from reaction, resisting it, judging it, trying to fix it or get rid of it. This only fuels suffering and keeps both us and the sufferers in victim mode.

If we look at it from the eyes of awareness, we recognize that just like winter, it is a part of life. We may not always like winter, but it is futile to spend our energy to try to stop it. When we trust that suffering is a part of life, then if something needs to be done, what we do doesn’t diminish the person by seeing them as a victim.

We are all much attuned to this. When a loved one in our life tries to rescue us, all we hear is we can’t do our own lives or there is something wrong with us. When a loved one trusts that our suffering is a part of our journey of awakening and that we know how to live our own life, we are empowered.

The same is true inside of us. When we can trust our suffering we are no longer a victim to it and we can gather all the gifts that are always inherent in the challenges of our lives.