Greetings,
When
I look back on the suffering in my life, I now see it as a gift.
I
would have never asked for it for a second, I hated it while it was happening
and I protested as loudly as I could, but suffering happened anyway. Now, in
retrospect I see the way in which it deepened my being immeasurably.
I
recently spent time in the local hospital as a result of a wound that I
incurred accidentally. The hospital was filled with staff who were more or less
karma yogis without having any idea of what karma yoga is in it’s Eastern
definition.
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I also used the perspective of the witness. I
witnessed the suffering, I witnessed my body as it got hold of my mind in
reaction to the pain. I witnessed the capturing of my consciousness.
Eventually, that witness gave me the leverage to transform my suffering.
It was interesting; my sadhana (spiritual work) came
through, my years and years of practice. Everyone who encountered me saw that
my spirit was strong if not my body. I immediately settled on the fact that
what happened to me was simply a matter of nature. Once I realized that it
was nature and karma, I was content and with that contentment I was able to
surrender to the One: to the Guru, God, and Self.
I had Maharajji’s photo in the hospital and I talked
to him, not about the suffering, because I accepted early on that this was
just nature and inevitable. But rather, I talked to him about love. About
truth. About joy. Of course, that’s the time to be able to burrow into that
moment in any of life’s twists and turns. I was very grateful to have this
grace in those very difficult circumstances.
And that grace is always available; we just need to
sink into our spiritual hearts, our souls, and see our lives as a passing
show from that perspective.
The body is the body, the soul is the soul.
Namaste,
Ram Dass
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