And what of suffering? Is suffering the way and the path to God? Some say it is the only way.
I am not pleased by suffering, and whoever says I am does not know Me.
Suffering is an unnecessary aspect of the human experience. It is not only unnecessary, it is unwise, uncomfortable, and hazardous to your health.
Then why is there so much suffering? Why don’t You, if You are God, put an end to it if You dislike it so much?
I have put an end to it. You simply refuse to use the tools I have given you with which to realize that.
You see, suffering has nothing to do with events, but with one’s reaction to them.
What’s happening is merely what’s happening. How you feel about it is another matter.
I have given you the tools with which to respond and react to events in a way which reduces—in fact, eliminates—pain, but you have not used them.
Excuse me, but why not eliminate the events?
A very good suggestion. Unfortunately, I have no control over them.
You have no control over events?
Of course not. Events are occurrences in time and space which you produce out of choice—and I will never interfere with choices. To do so would be to obviate the very reason I created you. But I’ve explained all this before.
Some events you produce willfully, and some events you draw to you—more or less unconsciously. Some events—major natural disasters are among those you toss into this category—are written off to “fate.”
Yet even “fate” can be an acronym for “from all thoughts everywhere.” In other words, the conscious-ness of the planet.
The “collective consciousness.”
Precisely. Exactly.
There are those who say the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Our ecology is dying. Our planet is in for a major geophysical disaster. Earthquakes. Volcanoes. Maybe even a tilting of the Earth on its axis. And there are others who say collective consciousness can change all that; that we can save the Earth with our thoughts.
Thoughts put into action. If enough people every-where believe something must be done to help the environment, you will save the Earth. But you must work fast. So much damage has already been done, for so long. This will take a major attitudinal shift.
You mean if we don’t, we will see the Earth—and its inhabitants—destroyed?
I have made the laws of the physical universe clear enough for anyone to understand. There are laws of cause and effect which have been sufficiently outlined to your scientists, physicists, and, through them, to your world leaders. These laws don’t need to be outlined once more here.
Getting back to suffering—where did we ever get the idea that suffering was good? That the saintly “suffer in silence”?
The saintly do “suffer in silence,” but that does not mean suffering is good. The students in the school of Mastery suffer in silence because they understand that suffering is not the way of God, but rather a sure sign that there is still something to learn of the way of God, still something to remember.
The true Master does not suffer in silence at all, but only appears to be suffering without complaint. The reason that the true Master does not complain is that the true Master is not suffering, but simply expe-riencing a set of circumstances that you would call insufferable.
A practicing Master does not speak of suffering simply because a Master practicing clearly understands the power of the Word—and so chooses to simply not say a word about it.
We make real that to which we pay attention. The Master knows this. The Master places himself at choice with regard to that which she chooses to make real.
You have all done this from time to time. There is not a one among you who has not made a headache disappear, or a visit to the dentist less painful, through your decision about it.
A Master simply makes the same decision about larger things.
But why have suffering at all? Why have even the possibility of suffering?
You cannot know, and become, that which you are, in the absence of that which you are not, as I have already explained to you.
I still don’t understand how we ever got the idea that suffering was good.
You are wise to be insistent in questioning that. The original wisdom surrounding suffering in silence has become so perverted that now many believe (and several religions actually teach) that suffering is good, and joy is bad. Therefore, you have decided that if someone has cancer, but keeps it to himself, he is a saint, whereas if someone has (to pick a dynamite topic) robust sexuality, and celebrates it openly, she is a sinner.
Boy, You did pick a dynamite topic. And You cleverly changed the pronoun, too, from male to female. Was that to make a point?
It was to show you your prejudices. You don’t like to think of women having robust sexuality, much less celebrating it openly.
You would rather see a man dying without a whim-per on the battlefield than a woman making love with a whimper in the street.
Wouldn’t You?
I have no judgment one way or the other. But you have all sorts of them—and I suggest that it is your judgments which keep you from joy, and your expec-tations which make you unhappy.
All of this put together is what causes you dis-ease, and therein begins your suffering.
How do I know that what You are saying is true? How do I know this is even God speaking, and not my overactive imagi-nation?
You’ve asked that before. My answer is the same. What difference does it make? Even if every-thing I’ve said is “wrong,” can you think of a better way to live?
No.
Then “wrong” is right, and “right” is wrong!
Yet I’ll tell you this, to help you out of your dilemma:
believe nothing I say. Simply live it. Experience it. Then live whatever other paradigm you want to construct. Afterward, look to your experience to find your truth.
One day, if you have a great deal of courage, you will experience a world where making love is consid-ered better than making war. On that day will you rejoice.