The Only Thing That Matters (23 page)

What is going to shared here now is not said lightly. It would be a mistake to presume that deep understandings such as that offered in the following paragraphs are presented off-handedly or blithely.

Just the opposite is true. They are presented seriously, and are meant to be taken seriously. They are offered from a place of full honoring of those who have suffered, and from a space of hoping to help those who are still suffering now, to bring their suffering and their struggling to an end.

From this gentle place we wish to observe that sadness, pain, and suffering are not all the same thing.

Now this does not mean that we should ignore all suffering, look past all of another's torment, and proceed as if nothing bad is happening in the world. Quite the contrary. All of the circumstances on our planet, all of the conditions of Life, are placed
before
us
by
us (remember always: we are acting
co-jointly;
there is only One of us) in order that we may decide, express, and experience who we really are in relationship to them.

Thus do those who suffer, and those who end the suffering of others, both experience Who We All Really Are. And This is exactly what is happening upon the earth. Everything that is happening is happening perfectly so that all may awaken.

Many Souls choose to be instruments of our awakening, and so are enduring enormous challenges, with many even dying, in order that all of us may awaken within us the Divine qualities of compassion, caring, understanding, patience, love, and, most of all, the Unity and Oneness of Life. Witnessing this, all of us of course experience deep sadness. At the deepest level, we are sad that
this is what it takes
for us to awaken. Yet this does not mean that suffering is required.

Sadness is emotional evidence of your deep humanity. If you did not love, if you did not care, if you did not feel deep compassion, you would be truly sad about very little. Sadness is a badge of honor. Wear it proudly. You have earned it with the wounds of your heart.

Pain is a psychological or physiological response to exterior stimuli. The fact that you experience it is evidence of the generosity of your Soul in taking on the human condition. When you bear it with courage and with strength, you demonstrate the nobility of your Sacred Journey.

Suffering is the Mind's
response
to sadness or pain. If you suffer while experiencing sadness or pain, you have clearly made a decision that
you should not now be experiencing it.
It is this decision, not the sadness or pain itself, that is the cause of your suffering.

Sadness and physical or emotional pain is what's arising. Suffering is your announcement that you may not fully understand
why
it is arising, and how it all fits into the Agenda of the Soul.

When you fully comprehend exactly what is taking place in your life, as well as the Process of Life Itself, then your suffering ends, even if the pain continues.
Nothing changes, but everything is different
.

The biggest difference is that you no longer feel that you are the victim in any life situation. And with the end of victimization comes the end of struggle and suffering.

There even come times in the experience of many when one's struggle and pain can actually be
celebrated
(believe it or not), even as it is being experienced, changing its very definition from suffering to joy.

Anyone who has had an aching tooth pulled and endured the endless machinations of the dentist and the unpleasant injection of Novocain knows exactly what this is about.

More profoundly, anyone who has experienced the pain of the death of a loved one, all the while knowing that their dear one's next experience is a gloriously happy reuniting with all whom they have ever loved, and with Divinity Itself, knows exactly what this is all about.

And any woman who has given birth to a long-awaited and cherished child knows exactly what a pain that turns to joy—even as the pain is experienced—is all about.

It is when you make this shift with regard to
everything in your life
that you switch from suffering to joy in the expressions and experiences of your life. From then on,
nothing
can touch you in a way that causes you abject suffering—even though you will
not
be immune to sadness or pain.

The question, then, is: How do you make this shift regarding everything in your life? How can you transform suffering into joy, and struggle into peace?

Mystics and masters through the ages have assured us that we can do this. A way
has
been found for the Sacred Journey to continue, yet for the struggle and suffering to end.

Life has given us a remarkably powerful tool that makes this possible. But now, this warning: When you hear of it, it may sound simplistic and overrated.

Do not be fooled.

It can change everything.

The tool?

G
RATITUDE
.

27
An Enormous Power Has Just
Been Placed in Your Hands

N
OW YOU HAVE ONE
missing piece of the puzzle. Now you have one transformative tool. (You will be given others here as well.) It is a device with immense power—a simple device that can transform almost any moment, almost miraculously, almost immediately.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's understand exactly what this tool is.

Gratitude is not merely an emotion, it is a decision.

So powerful is this decision that it becomes a definition and a declaration. It defines and declares your experience of Here and Now. And hence, your reality.

Gratitude can be a simple emotional reaction, or it can be a magnificent spiritual creation. It is a simple reaction when your Mind is on Automatic. It is a magnificent creation when your Mind has merged with your Soul in making a combined choice about any Present Moment.

In every Moment of your life your choice is always the same: to move into Reaction or Creation.

(You might have a little fun noticing that “reaction” and “creation” are very close to being the same word. Only the C and the R need to be reversed. When you C what you have always been meant to C, then you R what you always R—and the course of your
life
is reversed.)

While Gratitude may be one of the most powerful tools your Mind has ever been given, it may also be the most underutilized. This is no doubt because most people are not aware of the immense power of Gratitude to reverse a thought that is at the foundation of all suffering.

As earlier noted, the central cause of suffering is the idea that
something is happening that should not be happening.
Gratitude unleashes an energy that turns this idea on its head, announcing that just because something is unpleasant does not mean it is unbidden, unwelcome, or unwanted.

We have already demonstrated that pain (both physical and emotional) can, in
fact
, be bidden, welcome, and wanted—for any one of a number of reasons. Yet if the Mind
thinks
that a particular pain is “unwanted,” it will not abide it—and that is precisely what creates struggle in one's life, and suffering.

Struggle is the result of the Mind rejecting what the Soul offers. It is the Mind deciding to go off in another direction, veering from the Path of the Soul. Suffering is the emotional product of that decision. Both struggle and suffering are creations of the Mind, which is where your reality is created.

What your Mind
thinks
about something is crucial in determining how you experience it—and Gratitude can cause you to change your Mind.

Yet Gratitude is not a tool with which to fool the Mind; it is a tool with which to open the Mind. It expands your normal, limited thinking to include a counterintuitive truth: that even when something seems “bad” for you, it can actually be good for you.

Underneath this truth lies a deeper one: Nothing that
ever
happens is “bad” for you, or it wouldn't be happening. Life is incapable of producing an event or condition that does not carry you to the next place in your evolution, and that is not designed for your next expression of Divinity. Since the expression of Divinity is the reason you are here, you can be sure that everything that is placed before you
appears
before you to serve this Divine Purpose. (In other words,
your
purpose.)

And so we say,
Thank you, God.
We give thanks for the opportunity to heal an old injury, to close an old wound, to alter an old pattern, to shift an old reality, to release an old story, to change an old idea, and to create a new experience of Self and Life.

Okay. That's saying a lot. And you might now ask, “How is all this possible? How can all that healing and change occur?”

To see this clearly you must observe, with Gratitude, Life's most wonderful gift: