A thought rises…

In your “mind’ when a thought rises, what do you do? Do you Let it go or let it flow?

Personally I go with it and let it flow. It has always something to teach me.

Thursday afternoon, in my moments of contemplation, I stumbled upon a documentary on Netflix titled – Walk with Me – The documentary itself is exceptional. I recommend for your viewing. However, it stirred within me a thought.

A phrase in the beginning of the documentary said, “Suffering is Enlightenment”! This phrase has stirred me up. Stirred me right up. I chose this thought to flow for the rest of the duration of my evening, until now, and it continues even beyond writing this note from Joy.

Many years ago, while I was in pursuit of establishing my career, wishing my identity as a contributing member of social strata would root in society. I went through series of rejections, disappointments. It was rough. It felt like suffering. After an arduous effort I was successful and rest became history. It was an uplifting feeling to have a starting point. It was good. Between then and now, there have been other scenarios where disappointments, being misunderstood, being misperceived, felt like these experiences were leaving scars, wherein I merely found myself to be a bystander, created suffering of sorts. I would like to add, I am sure there were situations where I was at the other end.

Suffering is not always in situations or events but it is also in speech, thought, action (karma), participation/alliance/allegiance to acts and so forth. There are many aspects that may cause us suffering. Each aspect of what/why is that suffering to us is unique to each of us. To some of us there are health challenges. To some of us is our own identity. To some of us is finding a place in this world. To some it is the aspect of relationships. To some it could be anything perceivable.

I recognize and reflect, we create our own suffering. We are always in control of our choices. We always will be. It is the divine formula. What we do with it, becomes our action (karma) and each action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Paraphrasing Thich Nhat Hanh, On the thought, do we have to forgive everything? Thich Nhat Hanh says, it is from our unskillfulness that we create suffering, and when we recognize that we are suffering is when we seek forgiveness. When we recognize suffering in ourselves, we get to recognize the suffering in others. One must identify the suffering and remind that whom we share this suffering with is suffering too. We must choose to learn from our unskillfulness. We must ask for forgiveness from those who suffer through our unskillfulness and we should give forgiveness to those who make us suffer through their unskillfulness.

This is a deep thought. The thought lead us to the following questions, where do we go from here? or do we really have to go anywhere? How do we become mindful from our suffering? My suggestion will be to 1) Simply stay put, 2) be mindful, 3) observe your thoughts, and 4) carry on mindfully. Recognize that our suffering is allowing us to inch closer to enlightenment.

Best Wishes – Joy Sagar

Joy Sagar is a Spiritual Medium, Healer & Teacher based in Cassadaga, FL. About Joy!