=kit058.txt

KIT 58 - Suffering and Joy

"I don't want to know whom you are, I wish to know what is your
suffering."
PASTEUR

[ Fn (sa) kit058__1 ]


"Why O my feeling heart do you laugh and cry?"
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

"The victims of sorrow have often been the bringers of joy."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

Are you harboring suffering somewhere deep within you, yet
smiling? Do you feel wronged by someone, although you bear no
grudge? Do you conceal in your unconscious an uncanny notion that
life (fate?) Has been hard on you, yet spell gratitude for all
that life has brought you? Do you harbor a feeling of
unfulfillment for not having accomplished what you would have
wished to in your life. Yet do you experience bewonderment at the
great achievements of our civilizations? Do you feel sorry for
yourself for the sacrifice you have taken upon yourself to help
someone, while withholding any smidgen of resentment toward the
beneficiary of your munificence?

Are you pining in your being locked in the dilemma of unrequited
love, but rejoice in his/her happiness? Or are you frustrated from
being with your loved one, through the prevailing circumstances
while you welcome your rival open-heartedly? Are you aware that
while you feel sorry for a dear one who has died, you are really
sorry for your loss, while the deceased has found release from
pain? Do you suffer from loneliness yet prove the bright spirit of
the party? Do you long to be alone, yet give your whole-hearted
solicitation to your guests? Can you rejoice in the good luck of
your friends while you are desolate and abandoned? Can you
commiserate with the depression of another without slipping in
that despondent mood? Do you have the tenacity to persevere in an
unsuccessful enterprise on your hunch that it will eventually
prove itself? Can you hang on to the last shreds of the rope of
hope when everything collapses around you?

Can you maintain your composure in the midst of turbulence, keep
your wits in an emergency? Can you honor your faith in the divine
meaningfulness behind the cosmic software faced with proof of the
contrary? Can you see some mitigating grace in the hearts of those
who have let you down? Can you love the people you criticize and
guard people's pride at your detriment? Can you brave being
maligned while feeling precarious in your self-esteem? Can you
listen to the woeful plaints of the unfortunate while straining on
the lead to get on with your concerns? Can you cater for people's
pain while yours is far greater? Can you live with unbearable
guilt compulsively present, yet keep your spirit high? Can you
give joy to people around you while your heart is bursting with
grief? Can you jubilate in the cosmic celebration, glorifying God
while in your moment of need feeling abandoned by Him?

Here lies the challenge of life - of your life. Life avers itself
to be a battle for the victory of alacrity against suffering - at
the extreme: jubilation against despair. The wager is inestimable,
the triumph, and the tragedy! Winning or losing are in the balance
- one needs to know where the ultimate issues of one's life lie;
where one is being challenged.

Getting away from suffering proves illusory. It will stick to you
on the luxury yacht or in the desert, or in the underground caves
or on the mountain top or amid the laughter of the comedy show or
in your sleep or upon awakening. Or under tranquilizers,
surreptitiously concealed in the unconscious, it will sometimes
erupt furiously irrationally and unquellable. It will turn your
revelling sour when you face it and mar your quest for
entertainment to get away from it. The opiate of distraction will
wear thin. Can you fight tears with laughter? Can one transmute
suffering into joy? Or is it more realistic to be able to live
with suffering, whilst simultaneously exulting in joy?

But the cruelty of some knows no bounds - concentration camps,
murder - unbelievable! What a tour-de-force to make good the
scars! Is there a cure? Engaging head-long in creativity has
sometimes proven a wonderful palliative particularly if the work
of art sparkles with joy. Suffering like all emotions is a psychic
energy that can be put to good use. Ultimately only in acts of
service is there a way out - by serving other suffering beings,
alleviating pain wherever possible, even if such help only gives a
scant relief to the victim. Scanning another's suffering off-sets
one's pondering upon one's own. Self-pity can harden one's heart -
nurture spite, mask one's sensitivity to another's plight. In
contrast, love directed toward fellow beings melts one's heart,
ridding it of rancor; so acts therapeutically.

Look around you - world wide. Wherever you go, what do you see? Is
it people suffering, people having fun, sometimes oblivious that
it was at the cost of much suffering by those who made this well-
being possible; people struggling to stave off starvation, some
dying of starvation, others more fortunate, surviving marginally;
others opulent; the lazy, the inefficient, the mixed-up ones, the
smart, the venturesome, the tycoons, the stalwart, the timorous,
the opportunists, the traitors, the facetious, the play-boys, the
sadists, the criminals, the despots or simply the ruthless or the
greedy or the selfish, the oppressed under despotism, the heroes,
the activists, the handicapped, the mentally ill, those who have
lost the last grains of self esteem, the homeless wandering the
streets, sleeping in appalling conditions where life has become an
ordeal, the patients in bodily pain and anxiety about death, the
dedicated ones, social workers, environmentalists, medical
practitioners, teachers, healers, therapists, consolers, those who
administer the solace of faith to the broken spirits, the saintly,
the bigoted, the sanctimonious, the jesters and buffoons who are
sometimes more successful at fighting suffering with joy, and
despondency with good humor, the artists, the mystics, the
scientists, and last but not least numerically the good God-
fearing honest-to-goodness living middle range. What a drama we
are involved in! Or rather how far are we aware of what is going
on, and to what extent are we actively involved in it? What are
the issues being enacted? Or do we pass it all by, pursuing our
own trips?

What is the degree of your involvement? That is precisely the
measure of your mettle. What are your motivations to do what you
are doing on Planet Earth?

What contribution does spirituality have to offer to these vital
problems? Genuine spirituality evokes awareness and enhanced
sensitivity and therefore compassion for all beings because the
thought of God raises one above and beyond one's personal self-
concern or limited perspective. I am obviously not referring here
to dogmatism or fundamentalism or belief systems. Rather the
reference is to genuine spiritual emotion found amongst the
mystics and sages who inspire one to rise above one's selfishness
by awakening the greatest of all powers: love.
    
==================================================================

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY:


"I don't want to know whom you are, I wish to know what is your
suffering."
PASTEUR
[ Fn (sa) kit058__1 ]
Phooey Louie. I'd love to chat, but I've late to the dentist.