Stop Suffering!

"The hardest thing for a man to surrender is his own suffering."

-- P.D. Ouspensky

Suffering is so delicious! "Oh, woe is me. I'm a victim. Don't you feel sorry for me?" Many times the response we get is a resounding "Yes!" In a strange, perverse way, people respond to our suffering almost with glee. I've got a friend, one of my nearest and dearest, and whenever she asks how I'm doing, if I say I'm doing great, I swear I can hear the disappointment in her voice. If I start off into a litany of worries and woes, though, she perks right up, rises to the occasion, and is compassionate and helpful beyond belief.

So, yes, many times our suffering gets reinforced by both our friends and our culture. Nobody likes somebody who's too damn cheery all the time! Show me a little existential angst, some good old Buddhistic First Noble Truth type suffering, or at least a hangnail or broken cell phone. Suffering makes for a compelling story.

But how much of it is unnecessary? Alot. A whole, friggin' lot! We suffer out of habit, out of ignorance, out of a herd mentality, because we think we're supposed to, or, as John Mellencamp sang, sometimes because it just plain "hurts so good." Once we sit down, quiet down and look at our lives, though, damn near all of our suffering is self-inflicted, and much of it patently silly. Surrendering it seems like the only really intelligent thing to do.

I once listened to a tape of a lecture by Marianne Williamson where she talked of how people justify suffering by saying things like "You can learn so much through suffering." Marianne went on to say that she's learned plenty through suffering already, and now she's ready to learn some things through joy! Me too, me too!

So, today, let that silly, old suffering go. As Eckhart Tolle points out, there is never any suffering if you are completely in the present. All suffering is related, in one way or another, to either the past or the future. Be present and be free of suffering. Sacrifice it on the alter of joy. Let it go, let it flow clean out of you, and then just wait, and see what happens......