More Truth, Less Suffering

"If one can actually revert to the truth, then a great deal of one's suffering can be erased -- because a great deal of one's suffering is based on sheer lies."

-- R.D. Laing

All who want to suffer less, please raise your hands. Hmm, every hand in the cyber room seems to be up, except for the two masochists in the corner. Suffering is hardly anyone's favorite state, and yet suffer we do way too much of the time. Sure, some of the suffering is due to "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," but not most of it, as R.D. points out, comes from our own erroneous belief systems, our own minds.

What kind of lies provide the basis for our suffering? All kinds. Especially those opinions we hold so tightly, those beliefs we cherish so highly, and those stories we tell ourselves over and over again that have no basis in reality. Most of them begin with phrases like "the world is...." or "I am..." or "they are..." followed by a negative adjective or string of negative adjectives. "The world is unfair. I'm so stupid. They are mean, nasty and ugly." You get the picture. Swimming all day in a psychic pool of negativity, is it any wonder that we suffer?

Another type of lie we tell ourselves is "shoulds" As a psychotherapist friend of mine says, "We should all over ourselves all the time!" Shoulds are arguments with reality. Shoulds are basically saying "the world ought to be different than it is, goddamit!"

You see, the only truth is what is. Reality, the present, the now -- call it what you will. Any deviation from the truth causes suffering. Give up the lies of negative judgement, belief and opinion, and, lo and behold, suffering vanishes. By not arguing with what is, you present no resistance and receive no resistance. Life is groovy and copacetic (and every other far out hippie term you can think of) and suffering is gone.

So, just for today, release your arguments with Reality. Let the Truth be. And suffer less.