The Spiritual Process

So, continuing the topic on suffering: suffering as the master. The stage of the seeker of Truth, as he now stopped fearing suffering, -- first he understood it's an addiction, then he understand it's purpose -- so he stops fearing it and embraces it as a master. For all that I've been saying about the seeker of Truth I think by now you're getting an idea, if you didn't have before, of the difficulty, of the intensity of the path. It's a path made of fire, of the difficulty, of the intensity of the path. It's a path made of fire. Each step is a step of fire. For this you need a tremendous strength. This strength is available for everyone. It's not something for the few. It's for the few that are there to see. But it's available for everyone. There's a lot of strength involved. But if you're avoiding suffering, it is something else, it has nothing to do with the quest for Truth. You're rejecting the master, that which is there to prepare you. These days people come to Satsang with these ideas, without any roots of "nothing is real". It's true, but it doesn't have roots in the ones that are saying this. The attitude is always to avoid discomfort, so it cannot go far. As you cut these worldly investments, really cut them, suffering will be intense. If you don't have the power to stand it, you'll go back, you'll comply. People come to Satsang and they cannot even sit straight.

This is like this. Because if they sit straight and steady pain will come. It's very easy to say this in a relaxed position: "ohh, nothing is real, suffering is not real, pain is not real." But let the pain begin, and we'll see if these are just words, if you're not swayed by this, or if you are. Most of you are just playing with concepts. Again, this is not criticizing, it is giving opportunity. If I'm not the body, why do I have to sit straight? If you're not the body, what's the problem with sitting straight? If you're not the body, why should you experience pain? Well, if you're not the body, what's the problem to experience pain? Why do you have to go after the feeling good sensation all the time, if you're not the body? Why are you going after the embrace all the time? Why do you imagine that the Divine is a super nanny if you're not the body? Now sit straight, and discover if these beliefs are just mental or if they have something else, or if there's a seeing "I'm not the body, I'm not swayed by this". Those who practice meditation -- I often got these questions about -- I'm experiencing some discomfort in the posture, how should I avoid this? Are you really sure that this is there to be avoided? OK, sometimes the position, the posture is incorrect -- that's one aspect. But pain will come. I don't want to talk too much about the process of meditation, I'm just giving an example. If any one of you has questions into this, I'll be available to speak about it. Pain has to come. In the perfect posture, it will come. It is there to prepare you. You know that at the level of the nervous system it's preparing you, it's giving you the capacity to endure, tenacity. It's testing your determination. This is what pain is doing, suffering is doing. Stubbornness is not a bad thing, a defect, or whatever the word in English is. It is a good tool, if applied in the right place. As you are playing a spiritual life, Maya, Mother Maya, is smiling towards their infants playing distracted. If you want to leave the kindergarten she will be a little bit angry and she will do anything to push you back to kindergarten. She will show you the worst faces, you'll have your worst nightmares.

But eventually, if you actually succeed to get out from there, she will give you the prize, she will congratulate you. She's a tricky one, you see? First she makes you stay inside the playground by depriving you of your objects of desire. And you'll keep on the struggle to get these objects of desire. Then, if you're getting close, becoming a seeker of Truth, or if you have become one, she'll try to distract you again, to send you back again, by giving you the objects of desire that you once where so attached to and deprived. And for the majority, as the "toy" comes everything else is forgotten. So, as illusion is showing your worst nightmares you will need strength. All these spiritual practices are tools that are preparing you. But the real preparation is here. As you remain in your intimate space of perception, see the mechanics of your own illusion, recognizing the bounds you have to this world, to this illusion, to these investments, and start cutting them, taking the heat and remaining still. If suffering is coming, this is not real. So if it's not real, I will not comply. Pains are there in the seeker of Truth's path. They're there. If they're not present at this moment, if you haven't gone through this what I'm talking about, then you're doing something else which resembles in the form but has nothing to do in the content. To know this is an opportunity to go deeper more honestly, evaluate. Pain doesn't need to be countered, to be avoided. It's there to help you, it is clarifying you. It is blessing you. It is pushing you moving forward. It is a master that deserves your respect, your reverence. Eventually, that pain which is present, eventually, it will not disturb you anymore. Pleasant, unpleasant, it will not disturb you. If the threat comes, the pain will come, you'll not tremble, you'll not be scared. You will have silence, stillness. This is the basis, this is when you'll be really ready to see the world as it is: unreal. Before this, it's just a child playing. You have no silence. If you become a seeker of Truth and you actually are close of really questioning what seems to be real, questioning illusion, as the nightmare comes, as pain comes, you'll put the tail between your legs and you'll run away, go back to the playground. So this master is giving you what you need to give real steps. Pain is giving you your power back and it is teaching you, when you understand this, when you give yourself to this teaching. It will prepare you, you see?

The spiritual process has a life of its own. The more you want, the more sincere you are, it will intensify accordingly and will prepare you on what you need. You have to trust that even these situations that you are put into, that cause you a lot of suffering, they are there to help you to leave things behind, to regain your lost strength. They are not to punish you. But remember: for the seeker of Truth. Not the one who is still engaged in worldly conquests, investments, human investments. But the one who is for Truth only. Nothing wrong with the other one. Nothing wrong. Because if you're not a seeker of Truth, and that means: if you haven't understood certain things yet, if you still believe in these bedtime stories, "ohh, but first I have to have a relationship", "first I have to be a father or a mother", "first I have to experience this, then I can be released from this", if you still believe in these bedtime stories, OK. But it is just a bedtime story. If you still believe in these things, you'll continue just moving around, like a cat chasing its tail. And your precious gift -- time -- slips away from your hands. There's a game going on. Are you paying attention?

Distraction and deception, this is Mother Nature's tricks. Paying attention, focusing, this is your way out of the trap. Out of the play, trap is a very intense word. If you take the master of pain, of suffering, you'll grow up immensely, you'll recover your lost and unknown strength. You'll need it, or else you'll be at the mercy of the same. As these beliefs about yourself arise to tell you that you have no worth, no value, you succumb to this, you plunge into suffering and blah-blah-blah, if you change your attitude and you take the pain not letting yourself be touched by this, not defending yourself from the pain, eventually it'll lose the power it has on you. You'll become stronger. If you have to break beliefs, to leave things behind, whatever it is, it won't be a problem, you'll have the power to do it. In the majority of cases, you won't have the need to do it also, because there's nothing there to be broken. If there's not a problem, it's not a problem. But circumstances don't have a direct relationship. They have their own story. In whatever you are following, you will find pain, if it is a serious work. If it isn't, you will also, but it'll be quite different, as I said before. This pain that you'll find, this suffering, is there to prepare you, to make you strong. You'll need this strength, and you have it. You just have been listening to too many bed stories. OK.