Suffering as Grace

Question: What are some of the ways that I can deal with suffering and then start taking it to a place of Grace?

Ram Dass: For most people, when you say that suffering is Grace it seems off the wall to them. And we’ve got to deal now with our own suffering and other people’s suffering. Because that is certainly a distinction that is very real, because even if we understand the way in which suffering is Grace – that is the way in which it can be a vehicle for awakening – that is fine for us. It’s quite a different thing to look at somebody else’s suffering and say it’s Grace. And Grace is something that an individual can see about their own suffering and then use it to their advantage. It is not something that can be a rationalization for allowing another human being to suffer. And you have to listen to the level at which another person is suffering. And when somebody is hungry you give them food. As my guru said, God comes to the hungry person in the form of food. You give them food and then when they’ve had their belly filled then they may be interested in questions about God. Even though you know from say Buddhist training, or whatever spiritual training you have had, that the root cause of suffering is ignorance about the nature of dharma. To give somebody a dharma lecture when they are hungry is just inappropriate methodology in terms of ending suffering.

So, the hard answer for how you are able to see suffering as Grace, and this is a stinker really, is that you have got to have consumed suffering into yourself. Which means, you see there is a tendency in us to find suffering aversive. And so we want to distance ourselves from it. Like if you have a toothache, it becomes that toothache. It’s not us any more. It’s that tooth. And so if there are suffering people, you want to look at them on television or meet them but then keep a distance from them. Because you are afraid you will drown in it. You are afraid you will drown in a pain that will be unbearable. And the fact of the matter is you have to. You finally have to. Because if you close your heart down to anything in the universe, it’s got you. You are then at the mercy of suffering. And to have finally dealt with suffering, you have to consume it into yourself. Which means you have to with eyes open be able to keep your heart open in hell. You have to look at what is, and say Yea, Right. And what it involves is bearing the unbearable. And in a way, who you think you are can’t do it. Who you really are can do it. So that who you think you are dies in the process.

Like I am dealing, I am counseling now, the counselor of a couple who went to a movie and when they came home their house had burned down and their three children had burned to death. Three, five and seven. And she is Mexican Catholic and he is a Caucasian Protestant. And they are responding entirely different to it. She is going in to deep spiritual experiences and talking with the children on other planes and he is full of denial and anger and feelings of inadequacy. And in a way, that situation is so unbearable and you wouldn’t ever lay that on another human being but there it is. And what will happen is she may come out of this a much deeper spiritual more profound, more evolved person. And he, because the way he dealt with it was through denial, may end up contracted and tight because he couldn’t embrace the suffering. He couldn’t go towards it. He pushed it away in order to preserve his sanity. In a way, there is a process in which suffering requires you to die into it or to give up your image of yourself. When you say I can’t bear it. Who is that? And they talk about the saints of India as being the living dead, because they have died who they thought they were. And they talk about the saints for whom all people are their children. So that everybody that is dying is their child dying. It’s easy to say “Well, it’s not my child.” or “It’s not my brother or my friend.” This poem is most familiar to most of you here, but it’s still every time I read it I get off on it. I think it’s worth it.

from Earth Prayers, Thich Nhat Hanh

Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.

Look at me: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird whose wings are still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope,
the rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing in the
surface of the river.
I am also the bird which, when spring comes,
arrives in time to eat the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily in the
clear water of a pond.
I am also the grass-snake who,
approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
I am also the merchant of arms, selling deadly
weapons to Uganda.

I am the 12-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after
being raped by a sea pirate.
I am also the pirate, my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo, with
plenty of power in my hand.
I am also the man who has to pay his
“debt of blood” to my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes
flowers bloom in all walks of life.
My pain is like a river of tears, so full it
fills up all the four oceans.

Please call me by my correct names,
so that I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are but one.

Please call me by my correct names,
so I can become awake,
and so that the door of my heart be left open,
the door of compassion.

Photo by simon from Pexels

6 thoughts on “Suffering as Grace”

  1. Beautiful. I just lost my younger sister in a tragic death. In trying to understand the “why” and “what could I have done”, this article helps me know that although my gut instinct is to run from the pain & suffering, something deep in me knows I must turn and face it, embrace it. Thank you, this is perfect timing.

    Reply
  2. Thank you for sharing this Baba Ram Dass, this poem and what you wrote prior to the poem causes me to become vary quiet inside…

    Reply
  3. Dear Ram Dass. With your writing & this amazing poem..you have opened a door inside of me, i was strongly hoping & praying for. I am full of gratitude for this !!! I am in a relationship with a man, who’s Life destiny (he escaped from his home country with 35, he has Psoriasis) causes him & me as well, since we are connected – much pain at certain times. But there is one side – deep inside of me – that lets me know, each & every moment, through this pain, i am as well reborn again, to become the true version of myself. Sometimes i feel strongly to just walk away, and see many other chances for me, that seem & surelly would be much easier to deal with, but somehow i chose not to. Since 17 months .. and i deeply love his Soul for being the most sensitive man i have ever met in my Life & my biggest lesson. (Besides my education as Kundalini teacher, which will start in Dec. this year:) So, thanx once omre for your wonderfull Blog.. Sat nam !!! Love & Light

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  4. Elizabeth Palumbo I have attempted to run from suffering. As a nurse ,I thought I was kind because I was pro active with pain meds. In time I learned my need was more about my discomfort with their pain than kindness. Dying patients taught me that there is a purpose to suffering. I have learned from them that suffering is a doorway to surrender ,the vehicle to release control. As they entered pain I watched them find a portal that made letting go possible. In my own life I recognize my instinct is to turn away from suffering but experience has taught me to enter it. Now I see it as a signpost to go deeper.As I enter the pain,and truly feel it I find there is no where to go but to surrender. As it happens I feel myself choosing to give over to God instead of myself and from this I find rediscovery that Divinity is my truest essence. I have been here before and settle back into forgetfullness .Theses, moments of grace feels tinged too in sadness that I wonder how could I have forgotten this.The sadness I feel is that I relinquished my natural state because I didn’t trust enough to stand back and let God happen. That I choose “control ” over God. I realize also in those moments the force I have placed on myself to be worthy of God and I missed all the gentleness because I was too fearful to relinquish what I thought was control. I have learned there is no control, there is only God. If I lived this continually I would no longer need suffering as a teacher but I recognize I still allow limited thinking to take presedence in my life. I am at least aware and grateful for the moments that I am alive living in Divine grace. Dying patients taught me through their suffering that the only lesson in life is ‘let go of everything,then what’s left is God

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  5. And you have to listen to the level at which another person is suffering and As my guru said, God comes to the hungry person in the form of food. and he root cause of suffering is ignorance about the nature of dharma and you have got to have consumed suffering into yourself. and And the fact of the matter is you have to. You finally have to. Because if you close your heart down to anything in the universe, it’s got you and Which means you have to with eyes open be able to keep your heart open in hell. and Who you really are can do it. So that who you think you are dies in the process. and here is a process in which suffering requires you to die into it or to give up your image of yourself. and
    Please call me by my correct names,
    so I can become awake,
    and so that the door of my heart be left open,
    This lesson is vital for my spirit to become one with this wisdom~ ((( <3 ))) Thank-you~!!! Namaste
    the door of compassion.
    My own experience with pain and suffering is this, we die because…we are reborn in stages, we go through in increments, too much at once is a shock, there is no wrong or correct way to experience, we all have to do it as we do absorb and let go…absorb and let go..to finally release into this realization; it is all one.

    Reply

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