58 - Suffering and Joy

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

Pasteur

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.
