Pain, Suffering and Acceptance - N.M.

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Nisagardatta was just a humble bidii [cheap hand rolled cigarettes] seller.

Yet his psychological insights are incredibly sophisticated and clear. Have

a look at these!

 

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Whatever may be the situation, if it is acceptable, it is pleasant. If it

it not acceptable, it is painful. What makes it acceptable is not

important; the cause may be physical, or psychological, or untraceable;

acceptance is the decisive factor. Obversely, suffering is due to

non-acceptance. Why [shouldn't pain be acceptable]? Did you ever try? Do

try and you will find in pain a joy which pleasure cannot yield, for the

simple reason that acceptance of pain takes you much deeper than pleasure

does. The more we are conscious, the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain,

non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial

sources of real happiness, true bliss. (277-8)

 

There is trouble only when you cling to something. When you hold on to

nothing, no trouble arises. The relinquishing of the lesser is the gaining

of the greater. Give up all and you gain all. Then life becomes what it was

meant to be: pure radiation from an inexhaustible source. In that light the

world appears dimly like a dream. (257)

 

Pain is physical, suffering is mental. Beyond the mind there is no

suffering. Pain is essential for the survival of the body, but none compels

you to suffer. Suffering is due entirely to clinging or resisting; it is a

sign of our unwillingness to move on, to flow with life. As a sane life is

free of pain, so is a saintly life free from suffering. A saint does not

want things to be different from what they are; he knows that, considering

all factors, they are unavoidable. He is friendly with the inevitable and,

therefore, does not suffer. Pain he may know, but it does not shatter him.

If he can, he does the needful to restore the lost balance, or he lets

things take their course. (270)

 

Nature is neither pleasant nor painful. It is all intelligence and beauty.

Pain and pleasure are in the mind. Change your scale of values and all will

change. Pleasure and pain are mere disturbances of the senses; treat them

equally and there will be only bliss. And the world is what you make it; by

all means, make it happy. Only contentment can make you happy, desires

fulfilled breed more desires. Keeping away from all desires and contentment

in what comes by itself is a very fruitful state, a precondition to the

state of fullness. Don't distrust its apparent sterility and emptiness.

Believe me, it is the satisfaction of desires that breeds misery. Freedom

from desires is bliss. (249)

 

You must not indulge in forecasts and plans, born of memory and

anticipation. It is one of the pecularities of a gnani that he is not

concerned with future. Your concern with future is due to fear of pain and

desire for pleasure; to the gnani all is bliss: he is happy with whatever

comes. (285)

 

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With Love,

Cyber Dervish

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