Inquiry into Hungry Ghosts, Pain, and Suffering

[Guest guest]

(from another list, posted here by request)

 

Bob wrote:

 

Have you heard of the "Hungry Ghosts"?

A hungry ghost is one that keeps returning to you but that you,

usually in fear, keep avoiding or running away from. Hungry ghosts

could also be known as the "I don't wants", as in, "I don't want

pain. I don't want to be alone. I don't want suffering, etc". Hungry

ghosts are fear. So why do these hungry ghosts continue to plague us?

Why don't they leave us alone?

The answer is: "Because of Who we are".

Unquestionably, most of us think we are this body/mind, regardless of

any spiritual beliefs we may have. When we have physical pain or

psychological pain, no amount of religious or spiritual teaching can

make the pain disappear. The body/mind experiences pain, and that is

a condition of the body/mind. No body/mind exists in time without

some pain. The prime hungry ghost that visits us bears the

name "pain". This ghost has been chasing us since we were born, and

we have been running from this ghost just as long. The world runs in

fear from the ghost of pain. But why does this ghost keep chasing us?

Why doesn't it leave us alone? What does it want? A hungry ghost is

called a "hungry" ghost because it is hungry for something. Is it

hungry for us? Does it want to make our lives miserable? Or is there

some other reason it is called a hungry ghost? Some of us are parents

and know that when children are small and they want some comfort or

love they run to us. We embrace them and give them comfort and love

and once satisfied they run off to play again. This in essence is

what the hungry ghost does. The hungry ghost Sees You. The hungry

ghost Sees you "as You are" even though you do not see you. The

hungry ghost wants to join with you just as you want to join with

God. Just as you want to join with the Peace of God, the hungry ghost

wants to join with you for the same reason, it wants to disappear in

That Which Is. The hungry ghost Knows Who You Are and, in spite of

all logic, is a gift, a gift that you continually reject and try to

evade. The hungry ghost brings you the Realization of Peace. This is

the essence behind the Teaching "let it be". All Realization is

Realizing Who You Are. You Are That which all things attempt to come

Home to. But since you do not know your Self you attempt to keep at

bay those things that you don't want. But they, as "Holy Messengers",

continue to pursue you through the ages until such time as you Stop,

Stop and accept, surrender to all things that see their Home in You.

You are Home. You are the Home that everything is seeking. The

correct understanding or Realization of Home is not that you are "at"

Home, it is that you *are* Home itself. Everything, every thing, is

seeking You and you are rejecting certain things you deem "unworthy

of you". When the hungry ghost of pain, hungry for union with its

home, You, seeks you out, welcome it. Let it consume you even unto

death itself. "What benefit to you to gain the world and lose your

Self?". Invite all hungry ghosts Home. The hungry ghost of pain is

the most powerful and the one that carries with it the most powerful

lesson. For those of us in pain it is knocking at the door

insistently. It will not be denied. Do not deny it. Do not terminate

the body/mind from the lesson it brings. Invite it in.

Say to this hungry ghost:

"Welcome Home, my friend. Come into your Home. I have been running

from you for centuries and you come once more. I run no more. Enter

into me and if it must be, and I shall drop this body, you will be

with me tonight in Paradise. I may scream in the midst of your lesson

for me, I may curse you but know that it is not me doing this. I take

with me and onto me the pain of many. And if the morning should come

and the body still exists, we shall walk together you and I. You have

found a home in me dear friend. Together let us call the rest of the

hungry ghosts. I am the Home. Thank you for helping me Realize Who I

Am.

 

 

 

--- Maggie wrote:

 

Maggie: This (Hungry Ghosts) was a view of pain I had not encountered

before. It seems to imply that each of us can be like the Christ...?

 

 

bob: does that surprise you, Dear One?

indeed, might it not be a kind of reverse arrogance to believe that

we are somehow separate or independent from the oneHeart in Which

Christ is expressed in the form of our humanity?

 

 

Maggie: I was wondering if you believe that by welcoming pain

(physical or psychological), we can actually in some way lessen the

pain of others?

 

 

Bob: it has been said that those who know how to suffer do not

suffer, but that Truth, Which is our Divine Nature, incarnates in the

dream for the Liberation of the dream, and in doing so makes the

ultimate Sacrifice of relinquishing Its Immaculate Condition for the

sake of that which still believes in the substantiality of

independent existence, which is the root of suffering. And yet, if in

Truth there are no "others", who is taking on who's pain? Pain

is "pain-ing", without any subject or object, without any place

to "land", except in our imagination.

 

 

Maggie: Mothers always wish they could take the pain of their

children upon themselves. I am sure Wanda can relate to this.

So your post made me wonder, Bob, if by accepting the pain that comes

our way, rather than resisting it, we can somehow feel that we are

reducing the pain of the world?

 

 

Bob: Dear One, what we believe to be "this world" is merely the

result

of certain unique conditioning factors that, when filtered through

the body/mind mechanism, have created the illusion of some particular

substantial entity or conglomeration of entities, exactly like the

dreams we experience when asleep, that seem so real, only to dissolve

in the morning's bright awakening sunlight. When you are lost in your

lover's embrace, so entirely swooned into the Arms of Love, then

where is "this world"?

And Yes, Dear One, the only recourse, the only real option, when all

is said and done, is to open our hearts and arms and welcome all of

it, truly embrace all of it, allow it all in, for all of it is

nothing but the ceaseless Whisper of Love, of God, upon our Dear

hearts, and as we welcome it all, it melts in the Embrace, as do we,

and together we are released of any concern, any apprehension that we

might be other than This Love, and so we awaken to ourSelf as Peace,

even when the apparent conditions might seem to argue otherwise.

 

 

Maggie: In Joy's posts about the wisdom of the Vedas of India, he

says that when people inflict pain on one another, or on animals,

there are bad effects on the world as a whole.

 

 

Bob: in the dream, everything is inextricably related, but to

attribute qualities of good or bad is merely to re-enforce the

reality of the un-real. our concepts of right and wrong are mere by-

products of the conditioning spoken of above, and are but arbitrary

and non-binding modifications of consciousness itself.

 

 

 

 

Maggie: Everyone knows of the idea of a ripple effect of goodness or

ill-will. But can accepting our own pain be a kind of public service?

(I do not mean this facetiously.) This is a very interesting idea to

me, and I'd love to see a discussion about it here.

 

 

 

Bob: the idea that pain is something we "own", as in "accepting our

own pain", is a rather interesting notion, but:

 

is it true?

 

we commonly express such opinions, but few are willing to question

such assumptions. for example, who is the one who owns pain? the

usual reply might be:

"Well, me -- it is my pain, since it is happening to me."

 

and yet, is that actually true?

 

i am not suggesting an answer here, but merely that inquiry into the

matter might reveal something interesting and unexpected.

 

 

 

A troubled senior Lumen approached Ixnay one day at dawn, just as the

glorious skies were filling with that ineffable illumination that

ushers us all into the new day.

 

"Oh Combusha,

I look at my life and see the inescapable face of my suffering.

What is the remedy that will heal, once and for all"?

 

Ixnay sat in silence for a moment, just breathing in the stillness,

and then spoke softly:

 

"Dear One -

We suffer.

This is the truth.

What story we add to the fact of suffering

is another matter.

See the pain, really SEE it.

See the source from which it arises.

See how it changes, even in the most minute way.

Really inspect it, welcome it, breathe it.

Do not suppress it, or try to manipulate it, or release it.

As you observe this pain, notice something interesting -

it is appearing within a kind of space.

See that you yourself are the space within which this pain arises.

If you are that space, then you are witnessing the pain.

If you are witnessing the pain, truly witnessing it,

then it is not you, anymore than the clouds in the sky are the sky.

Clouds appear, and sometimes they are quite stormy.

Is the sky in any way in pain when the clouds storm?

Are you the cloud or the sky?

 

Now, about this cloud -

it is real.

As real as anything that appears.

It may be made of water, and have a birth & death,

but it is real. This is obvious.

Those who deny it are fools.

This pain is real.

It hurts!

It is a great temptation to flee into transcendence

when faced with suffering, especially for those with

some familiarity in the Principle.

Yes, form is empty, but emptiness is also form.

Sometimes we tend to get the first part right,

but neglect the other part of the equation, and then stick our

heads in the ostrich hole of dogma and belief.

That is an avoidance.

Let's not do that!

Allow the pain, until it isn't.

Observe the process --

over & over, again & again.

Stay with it, like a bulldog!

This is your Heart's desire & mandate.

It is why you are given this Gift.

Honor it by receiving and embracing it.

 

I love you!"

 

Hearing this, the greeb responded:

 

"Flowers at your feet, Dear One!

And yet, I still do not understand your frequent references

to 'the Wound at the Heart'. Could you please elaborate?"

 

Ixnay proceeded:

 

"There is a sense of shock which seems to accompany the

initial awareness of embodiment, the apparent 'fact' of separate

existence. When consciousness discovers itself seemingly confined to

an individual body/mind, with all the attendant complication that

implies, it contracts at the Heart, and begins the 'search', or

strategy of 'return' to the Home (Heaven, Eden) from which it feels

banished. Ironically, this very search is the re-enforcement of its

suffering, since it is based upon an assumption, or belief, that it

is somehow separated from Source.

All relations are submitted to the premise of this 'innocent

misunderstanding', and these little knives rip and tear at the

Blessed Heart, day after day, until the common destiny of the usual

person is revealed in the condition of despair so evident in this

dreamy realm.

 

Brothers and Sisters - how I love you!

 

YOU, JUST AS YOU ARE, ARE DIVINE GLORIOUS BEING!!!!

 

Abandon these sad shacks to which you have resigned yourselves!

The Radiance of your True Nature is Shining right before you!

Don't postpone another second - RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW!!

The Beautiful One, the One Who Is Truth, sacrifices even Truth to

press Itself into this Wound, this world of illusion, in order to

liberateillusion, and so becomes the Avatar of Love. We can bow down

to This Love, for indeed, This Love is Who and What we Are!

 

Yes, Beloved--

this is the Wound of Love.

It is about embodiment, you see.

It is the essence of the beauty of life itself, our

fleeting appearance here, and our apparent separation

arising within the One Heart that we Are.

It is where poetry, and yearning, and

poignancy are birthed, and it is our delight

as well as our heart-broken speechless moan in the

midst of Infinity. You get a sense of it when you

listen to the heart-smitten poet/lovers,

who tear their chests open to let the Heart breathe

and radiate this Mystery of Divine Being.

It is Life Itself crying out for Itself,

and this paradox can only be felt by those who

have surrendered everything into the Heart,

and have been willing to allow the full implications

of this incarnation to be felt, right down to their cells,

and who are no longer recoiling from life, but have

become so drenched in this immense wondrous terrible

glorious flow that we Are that they can do nothing but

fall deeper and deeper and deeper into the Love that

calls, and the Love that answers. This is the Love that we

bring to each other in our meeting here, and it is this

that is our wound, and our celebration!

 

Yes - I love you!

 

And I am held by you, as you are by me, as we are by This.

I need not say anything. Still, there is a movement to kiss your

feet, and your hands, and your cheek, and the place between your

eyes, and to share the gaze of souls that is the perfect heart-

spilling play of this wonder/mystery, this inexpressible joy of

consciousness appearing as form and dissolving back into Source, the

mother of all squirming dancing squealing blissful agonizing tearful

loving lonely impossible being, life flowing into death flowing into

life, this dreamy realm, these dreamy realms and chambers of our

Self, silent, Yes, absolved and forgiven beyond any need for

absolution or forgiveness, this emptiness, stillness, profound as

lightless night, so deep, so deep, so vast and full and immaculate,

and then our poignant meeting here, this multiplicity of our own self

arising from the vastness, in the midst of the vastness, the aware

space of now, eternal, waves of love upon the shore of love, and my

tears are an endless flow, and my heart is bursting, and I know not

what this is, but that it is, and it is like this, and it is like

that, and we are forever humbled and blessed and swimming in this

simple ordinary ecstasy my dearest Love, and we are just here around

this campfire, and we are smiling, smiling, smiling..."

 

 

 

Maggie: Dearest Bob, I am trying to understand some of the things you

wrote about pain.

 

Bob: Hello, Dear One!

 

Yes, we have a strong impulse to have things fit into some kind of

conceptual order, as if by "knowing" we can gain a sense of

certainty, when in fact our only true freedom lies in utter

submission to the unknown. mind's game is built around acquiring

knowledge in order to attain the illusion of some kind of control

over the Mystery in which it appears, and in which it fears it must

disappear. we can take the mind by the hand, as if it is our dear

child, and bring it to the still pool of the Heart, and let it bathe

in the healing waters within that Heart, and thus release the need

and demand to be in control. when mind relinquishes control, the

Queen can enter and take Her seat on the throne, Her Throne, the Seat

of Love.

 

now, for the sake of our little play here, let's examine your

inquiries:

 

 

 

Maggie: Here are statements I extracted from two of your posts

yesterday:

 

1. The root of suffering is the belief in the substantiality of

independent existence.

2. The pain we suffer is not necessarily our "own" pain.

3. It has been said that those who know how to suffer do not suffer.

4. It is a great temptation to flee into transcendence when faced

with suffering.

5. Allow the pain, until it isn't.

6. Form is emptiness, but emptiness is also form.

 

With regard to # 1, #3 and #4, how many people are able to get

beyond the belief in the substantiality of independent existence?

 

Bob: how many people do you imagine there are?

 

 

Maggie: How many have the option of fleeing into transcendence,

should they wish to?

 

 

Bob: actually, this is the foundation for the common "spiritual"

strategy, most evident in the recoil, rejection, and refusal of life

for some "higher" plane, whether it be the Judeo-Christian or Moslem

Heaven, or the Hindu denial of the body, or the drug addict looking

for another fix. Everyone's trying to just "get out", never having

actually "gotten in" in the first place. Most people are anywhere BUT

in the body, and a quick investigation of your own moment to moment

state will reveal that you spend most of your time "elsewhere", no?

 

 

Maggie: Do you know anyone who is able to "allow the pain, until it

isn't" (assuming this means banishing pain, not trying to wait it out

somehow).

 

Bob: Dear One – this is not about "banishing" pain, but welcoming it,

lovingly, as you would your own dear child. The greatest inspiration

in my life, in this regard, has actually been my own Darling Beloved,

and as she reveals her story you may see why I say this. I also sense

that Beloved Linda can share much in this regard. The measure of our

resistance to pain is the algebra of our suffering, since resistance

is constructed on the platform of identification with a separate

self, and it is this sense of self that can turn the inevitability of

simple biological pain into the drama of suffering. Thus, those who

really understand this still experience pain, but no longer add the

story of suffering to it. You might also enjoy the story of Ramana

Maharshi's final year, in which this great sage died slowly from a

ravishing cancer, and he could be heard in his room crying out in

pain, and yet he was so unmistakably anchored in the Recognition of

the Self that there was no suffering whatsoever. Actually, there are

many such stories, and what it comes down to is this matter of where

your attention falls. In other words, if the Vision of Beloved so

overwhelms you, so outshines any other appearing thing, then you are

only seeing Beloved, even though you may be Joan of Arc being burnt

at the stake.

 

 

Maggie: Maybe the answer lies in something else you

wrote, "...Truth, Which is our Divine Nature, incarnates in the dream

for the Liberation of the dream, and in doing so makes the ultimate

Sacrifice of relinquishing Its Immaculate Condition for the sake of

that which still believes in the substantiality of independent

existence."

Now, if I could just figure out what that really means!!

 

Bob: it simply means:

God so loved the world that He gave us His Own Son, that we may

understand our own Son-ship (whether male or female), and See that we

have never been separated from the Source, Which Is Love.

 

 

 

Maggie: Statement #6 (Form is emptiness, but Emptiness is also

form.) is beyond my understanding at this point.

 

 

Bob:

 

All things have their companion,

But this water way flows on of

Its own accord.

This river has no banks;

Inside is outside –

Where are we?

With neither outside nor inside, it includes

The ocean into which it pours and nourishes

The thirsty realms and ten trillion things, which are

Nothing but the drier part of Itself.

It's not one, not many, not dark, not bright,

Not arising, not ceasing, not empty, not existent,

Not up, not down, not creation, not destruction,

Not moving, not rest, not going, not coming,

Not deep, not shallow, not wise, not ignorant,

Not contentious, not harmonious.

Not new, not old, not good, not bad.

Not alone but without a second.

Why is this so?

Who can say –

Water sings, water answers.

Water is the Song of Itself,

The Song we sing when we are silent,

When we are Silence, Singing.

If you say it's That, it answers:

"This."

If you say:

"This."

It answers:

"That."

If you say nothing,

It laughs & Laughs, because

It is only Mirth, and

Happiness confounding!

Call it one, it has all qualities.

Call it many, it is formless and void.

Call it light, it is obscure and mysterious.

Call it dark, its Radiance is all-pervading.

Say it appears, it has neither body nor form.

Say it vanishes, it endures eternally.

Call it empty, it has a billion functions.

Say it exists, it is silent and without shape.

Call it high, it is level and formless.

Call it low, it has no equal.

Say it creates, it scatters the stars.

Say it destroys, everything's here.

Say it moves, it remains motionless.

Say it stands still, it runs with wild things.

 

The Lotus hold Itself aloft, and

Every color bows down.

Be that Bowing, water

Into water, rushing into

Itself, Bowing, always

Bowing.