The Value and Necessity of Suffering (Red Hawk)

We need help to continue to grow. The name of a God-realized being invokes the Divine. We can make efforts to return to the present, to ground the attention. Attention is crucial in learning to use suffering so that suffering does not use us up and can become food for growth. Two kinds of attention are possible for a human being: mechanical attention which is an unconscious survival mechanism, and a second or conscious attention which makes self-observation possible and is different than the mind observing the mind. Yogi Ramsuratkumar said that if we are born, we suffer. The Four Noble Truths of Buddha are considered: there is suffering, a cause of suffering, an end to suffering, and a path to that end. Why must there be suffering? What is the difference between suffering and pain? The mind makes no distinction between types of pain. There is only one place the mind can go to escape pain—into the imagination. All humanity is trying to escape mechanical suffering; conscious suffering involves not trying to get rid of it. The desire to change or avoid “what is” leads to constant, repetitive suffering. When we have the courage to stay with it, with discrimination, friction between “yes and no” produces heat which allows the heart to catch fire as mercy, as compassion. “May the heat of suffering become the fire of love.” All human suffering can be seen as the result of identification, clinging to a false sense of self. Mechanical suffering becomes universal suffering with the sacrifice of identification. There is a path to the end of mechanical suffering as a deeper sense of conscience develops, which takes in everything—suffering and joy—and when we do not seek one and avoid the other. Red Hawk is an acclaimed poet and the author of 12 books, including Self Observation, Self Remembering, The Way of the Wise Woman, and Return to the Mother.