THE SAUCE OF SUFFERING

A friend I never got to meet called Tracey, once said “There is another way of doing things, without suffering”. She lived her life from that place. 

 

What if -- whatever we're doing doesn't matter nearly so much as the suffering we slurp all over it. It's the “suffering-about” that sticks in our craw. (Sailor) Bob Adamson (Melbourne) has written a book called “What's Wrong with Now, Unless You Think About It?” Good question, huh?

But let's go one step further. Let's put aside for this moment what you're thinking and suffering about and look at this presumptive “You” that is supposedly doing the soapy thinking and suffering. What if this “You” doesn't exist, except on the stage of your imagination? If this "Me" is just figment of your imagination, then everything is imagined, and whatever this imaginary “You” is imagining and thinking about is just happening, out there all on its own, yes? It really doesn't have anything to do with the real you at all. Me either. Doesn't that possibility lick all the toffee off your suffering? And you're left with – waking up to find it has all been just a bad dream.

What if the “Me” that you think you are is what Douglas Harding calls “the headless space” that you cannot see from where you are? You can see what's in front of you; you can see your feet; you can see you knees, your tummy, and you chest – up to a certain point. But above that, you cannot see. You know that it exists, but you cannot see it. But "it" can see, and hear, and smell. That headless space sees and hears and smells – it “awares” for you. 

When you were a baby you looked in a mirror and saw some “other” dude gazing back at you. Then, somewhere between 24-30 months you looked at a mirror, saw this same something-with-a-head staring back at you and an idea popped - “That's Me. I have a head and a face and stuff!”. And you've been alternately enamoured, in trouble with and committed to what you saw in the mirror, ever since. Some of us can't even get up in the morning without checking to see if it's still there!

Well, it's not. Not really. And if you didn't keep looking at your stuff and saying “That's me”, your discomforts and suffering would be all over. 

You are just Awareness. That's it. And everything else is just froth and bubble that shows up in that awareness.

But if you insist on saying “That's me” and jumping on board for the ride, go for it! It's allowed. But any time you've had enough, just remember what you are.... OK?

[Don't Think Twice, It's Alright – The Kingston Trio – 3:16]