Pain is Inevitable, Suffering is Optional

It’s becoming more and more apparent, the older I get. Everywhere I look, there seems to be pain. There is physical, emotional and spiritual pain. All pain is definitely inevitable.
Those who choose to live in pain due to their choices will someday realize that the word P-A-I-N stands for: Poverty (physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally and sometimes even financially), Anxiety, Insecurity and Neuroses...think about it, seriously.

Our self-induced suffering is caused by either the conscious or unconscious choices we make. The suffering is the end-result of the emotions being bombarded by the actions previous to them. It is safe to say that all choices, whether conscious or not, are all meant to be part of the path we take on our journey through life. Each one of those choices is imbued with blessings, whether we see the original good or not. Every single event, choice and circumstance in our life has its intended purpose. They may not look or feel good from our human perspective but they are fulfilling our soul's purpose in arriving back at the Place From Which We Originally Came.

The human mind is limited in its understanding of our purpose. It's limited in its understanding of our choices. It's limited in its view of the entire forest, for it seeks mostly to look at the individual trees, not realizing that the forest holds the answer. The complete picture needs consideration. We are seen as individual and separate and yet, under the "see" level, we are all irrefutably linked by our roots.

We all experience pain in many ways, just because of the state of the human condition. But the suffering we sometimes cling so desperately to is all in vain. We need not suffer. Since we are all literally created by God, Who happens to be spirit, we all are created of the same dynamic quality that God is and that is energy. The word "emotion" means "energy in motion"...therefore, in our daily life, we can seek to still the motion. I am not implying that we seek to quiet God. I am saying that we can quiet the motion; we can center our thoughts, our heart and our inner being and choose to use the energy inside us to rise above the suffering.

Any event, thought or circumstance only has as much power over us as we choose to give it. We are the creators of our own universe, solely based on our thoughts about it. Nelson Mandela is a perfect example of this. One of the greatest men of peace on earth, he was imprisoned unjustly for many years. He came out of prison not that long ago and became President of his country. He could have chosen to have anger, bitte
ess, resentment and vengeance against those who imprisoned him but he did not. He still chose the way of peace and acceptance. He gave none of his personal empowerment away to any man, nor to any situation in which he found himself. The same goes for the Dalai Lama. He, too, was exiled. He, too, lives in peace and acceptance. So, too, did the Christ Jesus.