Thursday, January 3, 2008

How to End Suffering


Suffering is not in the situation, in the fact, but in the perception of the fact.


There is a common belief in the world today that we can transform a situation by changing it. That is called situation content. We think by transforming the content that we are going to be happy with it, but in reality the situation has nothing to do with your happiness or your sadness. It is in the way you look at the situation – the way you perceive the situation.


Very often when something has happened, which you did not expect, which you don’t

like or appriciate, the situation has long past, but you still carry the situation inside of you. You are constantly questioning the situation with, Why? – Why did this happen to me? What could I have done differently? And you try to offer many explanations as to why it happened to you.


You see, the suffering is not caused from the situation itself, but in the way you are questioning the situation, in your inability to accept the situation, and all the reasons you think this happened to you. It is impossible in the current state of the world, and with the karma, that one can become completely free of all problems. Problems are bound to be there, for anybody and everybody – whether they be rich or poor, educated or uneducated or of any class or location.


Problems can be there, but there is no reason for one to suffer, because the situation – the problem – intrinsically does not contain any suffering. When you reach a level of consciousness where you can accept situation in life fully, by being alive to the situation, no matter what the situation is, you will be happy. Oneness Blessing can help you reach that level.Jesus felt enormous Love and Compassion because his brain was wired differently. The Buddha was in the state of immense peace and tranquilly because his brain was wired differently. If you want to feel that peace, if you want to feel that love, it’s possible when the changes happen in the physical, grey matter in your own brain.


When your brain is wired differently, then it is possible for you to experience that love and peace. That’s what Oneness Blessing does.There is not too much to explain about Oneness Blessing because it is not a technique. It is an act of grace. When the Oneness Blessing is given, there is a neurobiological transformation which leads to love, peace and bliss – whatever you are really looking for, including an end to suffering. Enlightenment (Oneness) or whatever you want to call this state is not a psychological process. It is a biological process. If it were a psychological process then surly by practicing a technique it would be possible to achieve. Since it’s not a psychological process, it would be impossible to get there by using a teaching or a technique.


There is no singular definition of Enlightenment, but the way we understand Enlightenment is that it is a state where all suffering has ended – all psychological suffering, and all existential suffering. You live your life with no more sense of isolation. You feel a part of everything; you feel that everything is a part of you. There is the experience of connectedness, and you don’t feel separated from others. So when we speak of Enlightenment, we talk of this experience where all division has ended inside where the sense of separate existence is gone. It is this Enlightenment, through Oneness Blessing that is being given to the people. When Oneness Blessing is given, you will find whatever it is that you have been seeking.


By Acharya Sri Sri Anandagiriji

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