How does awareness help us understand suffering?

Today’s post is another one of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations. In this one he talks about how our suffering is the same as everybody else, and that of Jesus on the cross, and not separate from it.

How does awareness help us understand suffering?

My resistance to what is happening right now IS my suffering. We must understand this. Our opposition to the present moment comes from what we call ego. The ego is that part of us that wants to be in control, to have its own way.

Jesus’ life is an invitation (“follow me”) to enter into solidarity with the pain of the world, because that is where he went. It is a journey that shows us there is only ONE suffering, which is united in God. My suffering and others’ are not separate. Jesus personified this through his death on the cross. Our suffering is like the suffering of everybody else, and that of Jesus on the cross. That may help us accept the present moment with more awareness and with loving kindness and compassion.

From Jesus and Buddha: Paths to Awakening (CD)

Mantra:
Be still my soul.

I can certainly see something of me in that first paragraph, especially, “The ego is that part of us that wants to be in control, to have its own way”. One of the main reasons I’ve struggled to accept my own health problems is because they take away my control over my life. I always think I’ve been able to get through that, but every time I hit a bad spell I know that I haven’t — I’m still kicking and screaming about lack of control.

One day, with the help of God, I will get through that self-centred ego and learn to “accept the present moment with more awareness and with loving kindness and compassion”.

The email was one of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations. If you would like to subscribe too, and I can recommend them, the website is here: The Center for Action and Contemplation. It won’t cost you anything.