What Else Is Here Besides Suffering

Monday, 10 October 2011 03:51 Written by Nirmala

I received a follow up response to my previous blog post about grace which I have paraphrased here:

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my question.

I can see in my life that experiences are neither good or bad unless I judge them either way. So basically I see them as neutral and not even benevolent. Things just happen, not towards any greater good. I can hold the concept that all experiences come because they are benevolent and beneficial, but I'm not sure that this is true from what I see around me.

Is the experience of starving to death bringing a gift that is really benevolent and pushing towards something beneficial for that person? I'm struggling to see the beauty in this. How is famine and starvation benevolent or beneficial? It just leads to a lot of death. I'm not afraid of death and I don't think it's 'wrong' if it happens. If the flowering of enlightenment in a human-being is the sign of the deepest awareness, then I can't see how so much death is actually beneficial.

When I see horrific cruelty to animals I can't see any grace in action or any benevolence. Why does grace hurt itself? There is so much horror. It would be more accurate to say that 'grace' is the horror in the world, because there seems to be so much of it. If 'grace' acts through experiences it sure chooses some pretty horrific ways to get its point across, and this has hardly lead to the mass flowering of enlightenment. If starvation and cruelty were beneficial tools, surely millions would be awakened and awakening by now.

It looks more like life is a mixed bag of tricks and treats without any purpose or meaning. I know I'm looking at this through my little mind, so I struggle to understand what I see and experience using my mind. I try to avoid magical or wishful thinking in favor of what actually is, because I am prone to fantasy and looking for meaning which may in fact not exist.

Here is how I responded:

Everything you share is true. And there is still the question of how true. Is it the whole truth? Is it the biggest truth?

Is it possible that while all of the hurt and pain and suffering in this world is real and is happening, there is still a bigger truth to this existence. You do not have to deny or ignore the suffering, and definitely you can always respond in any way that you can that will relieve or reduce the horror and the tragedy that is a part of life.

And at the same time you can look for and question the possibility of a greater intelligence and Presence that is also operating in this world and beyond it. A bigger truth than the pain and suffering is the truth that our consciousness is affected by everything (that is why we call it consciousness), but it is not harmed by anything. Bodies can be harmed and even die, but is there permanent damage to the consciousness? I am inviting you to hold this as an open question, something to be discovered as life unfolds here on earth and also beyond your time here on earth.

And yet here and now you can directly discover for yourself what the biggest truth is. The truth is what opens your heart and quiets your mind. And a smaller truth contracts your heart and makes your mind very busy. So check for yourself, does believing that life is a mixed bag and has no purpose open your heart right here and now? And what effect does it have on your heart to at least hold the possibility that consciousness cannot be harmed? Which idea gives your heart more room to breath and just be?

I invite you to explore this capacity of your own heart to discriminate how true every idea, hope, dream, fear, worry and intuition is. They all are true because truth is what exists, and so all there is is truth. Yet truth comes in many different sizes from extremely small to infinitely big, so discrimination is needed to determine how true things are. You can explore more about this way of discriminating truth in the free download of part two of my book, Living from the Heart, available here.

So in my view, we are both right, and the truths I share and the truths you shared with me are not even contradictory. They are complimentary and even when we cannot see how they fit together, we can at least recognize that there is room here for both of them. A bigger truth is not better, just bigger. A smaller truth is not worse, just smaller. And you can respond to and include all sizes of truth in your awareness. You can feed the starving, feel the intense grief and sadness of unecessary cruelty and destruction, and also discover the limitless peace and love that is also here in every moment. You can also discover for yourself the depth of your soul that has never been harmed, and never will be harmed. And you can see that same depth in the eyes of a starving child if you look deep enough.

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Grace Is All There Is

Saturday, 08 October 2011 14:55 Written by Nirmala

Someone sent me a message on Facebook:

Can you tell me what grace is? I'm struggling to understand it.

I responded:

Very simply, grace is your essence, your true nature. Grace is what you really are, and grace is all there is.

Specifically and practically speaking, grace is the intelligent optimizing movement of life. This optimizing force is what unfolds every moment in the direction of greater truth and love and greater functioning and fullness of life. Grace is the nourishing Presence that holds us and supports us in the unfolding of our life. You have experienced this many times when things just fall into place, or you are touched by a deeper understanding and awareness.

And while grace is obvious in moments when the seemingly miraculous occurs or when there is a profound opening into the depths of Being, grace also knows when a difficulty or obstacle will ultimately lead to a greater depth of awareness and a fuller expression of our limitless potential. This means that grace often shows up as a flat tire on the way to work, or a broken heart, or any of the minor and major difficulties we face in everyday life.

This is the challenging opportunity in understanding and appreciating grace: to see that it is always here and always bringing to us the exact experience that is most useful and helpful. It is often only in hindsight that we can see the grace in our struggles and suffering, but it is always there. When we recognize the grace in our challenges and difficulties, this can often allow the difficulty to be resolved more naturally and effortlessly. When we accept and embrace feelings of despair and discouragement, then we are able to see them more fully, and at the same time we are able to also see more fully the other possibilities that can relieve our difficulties.

But the real key is to see the grace and perfection that is already here. The most profound healing of our suffering is when we see the truth of our suffering. When you see the grace in your own suffering, then it no longer matters if it is resolved or relieved as it is no longer an experience of suffering. It is just what is happening.

To understand grace does not require an intellectual grasp of its definition or even a specific insight into how it works or what it is. Understanding only requires that you be open and curious about your experience just as it is right now. Are you willing to see grace as she is appearing right now this very moment? Can you recognize her even if she is wearing an artful disguise as pain or discomfort? Can you open your heart to the gift she is offering you today?

The understanding does not come as some final insight or as an answer to all of your questions. The understanding comes as a felt sense of trust that life is safe and good and worthwhile. The understanding comes as the unfolding of life moment to moment. This is the miracle of grace touching you in every moment and it is always as close as your own breath. You will never be done discovering all of the infinite ways that life and grace can unfold and express, so the understanding of grace will only take forever! What an adventure and what a blessing: to be shown the many dimensions and possibilities of your true nature as intelligent, loving, infinite grace.