A question, a great question, came in this morning:
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“I’ve been told that if you don’t suffer you can’t know the meaning of happiness. What is your take on this?”
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Bizarro! (That is my take on it).
First of all - I love people. One of the things that makes my life that extra bit sparklier is connecting with people, hanging out, inspiring, getting to know each other. Having said that, humanity holds some truly bizarre ideas to be true, such as the one above.
You know you enjoy something simply because of the fact that you like it, it is enjoyable in itself.
For example, I love apples. There is an apple tree in bubba’s grandad’s garden that is full of the most delightful apples. I could eat them all day long. Sometimes with peanut butter, most times without. Yom, yom and yom.
I do not need to eat brussel sprouts (which I detest) to know how much I love these apples. I do not need to even merely smell a durian fruit (if you don’t know it - look it up - the description is enough to make you shudder) to know how good these apples are. I do not need to suffer in any way for these apples to make me very, very happy.
Do you get that?
Suffering is not necessary to enjoy. Not at all.
In fact - suffering need not be apart of life. It doesn’t make you human. It isn’t necessary, at all. You were born into joy, life doesn’t HAVE to include anything else but joy.
The only benefit to suffering could be giving you the motivation to find a way never to go into suffering again. I know it did that for me.
But beyond that, a path into heaven just gets more heavenly the more you walk it. It doesn’t go through hell. That just doesn’t make sense. OK?
Now - ask yourself, if it’s even a tiny bit possible that I’m right on this, why not investigate ways of being free from suffering? Wouldn’t that make life truly amazing?
Yes indeed, it would.
Go well!
Arjuna
PS.
Well those 15 minutes coaching slots filled up quick! I might do some more in December, but what I would advise, if you haven’t already, is get onto my mindfulness challenge -
Here’s the link to all the info, and the facebook group: