SUFFERING IS BECAUSE OF THE MIND

Do you know that other creatures, know nothing about suffering because animals never suffer? They only know physical pain in their bodies but have no experience of any suffering. Why this is so? This is for the simple reason that animal world is total unconsciousness (behoshi) and because they exist in unconsciousness, they exist in oneness i.e. one with this existence. Being one with the existence is to exist in one’s reality or to exist here in one’s natural state. Because, other creatures always exist in their natural state i.e. without any sense of separation from this existence and hence they have no experience of suffering. 

Like the animal world we, human beings, too, have no experience of suffering in our sleep. We know nothing about suffering in our sleep because all what we know as suffering, fear, misery, anxieties, worries etc do not exist in our sleep. This is because sleep, too, is unconsciousness and in that unconsciousness, we, too, exist in our natural state i.e. one with this existence like other creatures and hence no feeling of suffering. Sleep, thus, is our natural state, as well, because in sleep nothing else but the reality alone or the existence alone exists. 

Suffering is only when something other than your natural state, is there. That’s exactly the reason that, in your wakeful state, all your problems; your anxieties; fear; misery or suffering appear again. They all become alive with your waking up because with your waking up, your mind also wakes up. Mind is not intrinsic to you. Mind is extrinsic or other to you because mind is something which you have acquired from outside and hence not innate to your natural state. Mind exists with reference to others and hence, mind divides, mind splits. Mind means ‘others’, mind means duality because the world or the ‘other’ exists in your mind and not on the outside. 

Your wakeful state is thus, not your natural state because in your waking state, not your reality but your unreality, in the form of your mind, is operative. Existing as an individual or separate from this existence is an idea or imagination which exists in our minds only. Mind means imagination and we are separate only in our imagination or mind only. It is mind which creates the false sense of individuality or separate existence. Else, it is just oneness or universality only. Our idea of individuality or ego or separate existence or ‘I’m’ or ‘I’m this body is a product of our mind only and this idea exists in our mind only. Individuality has no reality because, there is no such thing as individuality. It is just one existence and oneness only. 

That is, exactly, the reason, that other creatures never suffer because, they do not have what we have i.e. mind. Since the mind is not, they have no sense of individuality and hence no suffering. Suffering is of the mind and in mind only. The same thing happens to us in sleep as well. In sleep, our mind merges, temporarily, into unconsciousness and with that our suffering, too, disappears temporarily. However, with our waking up, our suffering becomes alive again because with our waking up, our mind too wakes up. Thus, mind is the only cause of our suffering.

 

What we, therefore, need to understand is that suffering is because of the mind. In sleep, because the mind is not and hence there is no suffering. In sleep, we thus exist in our natural state, in our original or innate state. Hence, if we can exist in the same state as we existed in our sleep i.e. without mind then in our waking state, too, we would exist in our natural state i.e. without mind and that would be the end of our suffering. Because, natural state is state of oneness with the existence, a state where only the existence and nothing else exists. In oneness, there is no other and hence no suffering too. (next post - THE ONLY WAY OUT OF SUFFERING IS THAT MIND MUST EVOLVE INTO FULL CONSCIOUSNESS)