The Way Out of Suffering - Anuradha

SUFFERING… has it always existed? Who suffers? Only human beings or all creation? Does an amoeba suffer? Do stones suffer? Does suffering being with life or does it have its genesis in the mind? Can suffering be eliminated? … and so on.

I suppose the list is endless. It is an issue so pertinent to all of us and seemingly inescapable, that it does not even form a part of our frontal thinking. Just as we accept that all creatures must undergo the law of hunger, so do we accept that all must suffer.

Yet this is the question that assumes importance whenever there is a deep crisis in our lives. And then who do we turn to? None of our ordinary frameworks provide any answer to it – neither the great modern religion, Science, nor the world rulers, Economics or Politics. Nor can we find the answer in all our Educational and Professional training. The only discipline that has dared to address this crucial issue of human life is Spirituality and philosophies based on spiritual insights.

© `The Awakening Ray’ (Sept./Oct. 2002) published by the Gnostic Centre, H-401, Sam Vihar Apartments, Sangam Marg, New Delhi 110 022. Reprinted with permission.