The end of suffering

 

There's no doubt that we live in difficult times. There is a hunger for answers because there is so much pain in the world. A lot which is emotional (if you look into your own life, you may notice an undercurrent of anxiety/fear/worry). Unhealed hurt leads to hate, violence, suppression, judgment, fear, addiction... I believe that people are searching for something better. Just look at the amount of self-help books and tapes that are sold, and how people will travel halfway across the world to find serenity, answers, a way out of pain...

But the path to a richer life lies within us...

 

For years I devoured books, attended workshops with famous spiritual teachers, and so forth... but had I not put action into a spiritual practice, nothing would have truly changed. My issues had to be pulled up by the roots which required me to look deeply at myself. Books can be a tool to open our minds, but someone else's explanation about healing will not heal you. It has to become a personal experience.

Twenty years ago, I began my work...

The first change I had to make was to give up the lie that I felt okay. It was difficult because I was ashamed that I didn't feel okay, so I had to push through the shame. Then I had to be willing to meet the darkness. The darkness is a place inside of us where we push down everything we don't want deal with. But because the darkness holds our truth, it also holds to key to our personal freedom. Truth sets us free. Denial forces us to go against our nature. We then, are trapped!

 At an early age, we began to give up pieces of ourselves... we weren't taught to trust our feelings/our intuition. We lost sight of who we were. As a result, we've made choices for our lives based on what we thought was right and have spent an incredible amount of energy trying to make things work....trying to feel okay. But the thing is that we are meant to be aligned with our spirit. To live any other way, brings pain...

What I see in the world is a lot of people working very hard to feel okay. What I've learned from a personal experience over the past 20 years is this: the way out of emotional pain (which eventually leads to physical pain too) is through it. You have to be willing to jump in the mud and get dirty. You have meet and make peace with all parts of yourself and your personal story (all your life experiences) that you have denied. You have to change the things that don't align with your soul. You have to let go of narrow-minded thinking. And one more big thing, you can not figure this out on your own. You have to move pride and ego out of the way to become teachable. I spent much of my earlier years letting myself be guided by teachers I trusted, until I could tap into my own wisdom... to be continued

*****