Success and Suffering

Amy Winehouse

“The more spiritually ignorant you are, the more you suffer” – Eckhart Tolle.

Singer Amy Winehouse is dead at age 27. This brought to the fore an observation by a local newspaper that she is the latest member of the “27 club”; that is, another musician who has died at age 27 and one of those struggling to cope with fame. The group includes such people like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones. The famous Michael Jackson lived well beyond 27 years but one did not need to be a friend to disce
a great deal of suffering in him.

While I did not know these people personally, I am not hereby being judgmental. When Amy’s mom resigned herself to the expectation that her (Amy’s) death was imminent, it showed the sense of how Amy was perceived. The title of this Blog, When Success Feels Empty, is about one area of the human condition which is somewhat paradoxical when seen from the usual perspective. Because we tend not to expect the emptiness and at times deep suffering sometimes being experienced by people who are “successful”.

Why do people who seem to have “it” all, sometimes seem out of control? And why do many of the persons who are able to command the attention of the world, just die, when they seem to be able to offer so much more?

Situations like these may bring out the analyses of the psychiatrists. They will consider how the parental and environmental stresses, etc., create the avenue for dysfunction. Many of us lesser folks become flippant ‘experts’ as we come to know what is going on and have the explanations. And yet, I suspect that what is happening goes beyond the mind, beyond, the context of our own individual dysfunctions that are not yet diagnosed.

The fact is, as spiritual beings, the answers to our dilemmas lie in our spiritual realms. When success becomes empty, and maybe even long before there is the recognition of success, there might be the call to accept who we truly are and shake off the weight of what the world expects of us. The ensuing struggle that develops is seen in resistance, and the physical deterioration of individuals leads many to “odd” lifestyles. Drug use is one of them and this is particularly prevalent in persons from the performing arts.

Many accept this call or in any event they minimize resistance and the most that happens is that the world calls them ‘names” to describe their existence. But as we have seen, even the very rich, with resources for elaborate psychoanalysis, do not simply make it back to what we consider the right way.

I am sure more will die, if not at age 27, then any relatively young age. But there is hope for some because there is a general awakening that is providing a new way out for persons who need to connect with their inner self and become free to live a purpose driven life. Not lives dictated by the traditional laws of success or mistakes about what happiness is, but one awakening to peace. Because no one truly at peace will need to look outside of himself or herself for peace and especially towards drugs for his or her salvation.

This Blog invites your comments and other interactions from those who are drawn to participate here, and in our workshops and seminars designed to bring out that peace. If you are successful but unfulfilled, maybe we can examine alte
ative keys to success.