Every time we suffer, that pain is a cry from our soul for help. Habitually, the ego-mind takes control and decides how to respond.
Unfortunately, when the ego-mind hears the pain of frustration, for example, its solution is that you need to work even harder to achieve what you want. Or perhaps substitute a different goal. Or just get angry at the person who is causing the frustration. Every type of suffering we experience, the ego-mind’s answer is basically more of the same. Find a way to get what we don’t have and want and/or blame someone for our efforts not being successful.
When we receive such guidance, ideally we would have the awareness to understand that it will just cause us more suffering and reject that guidance as not being right for us. (See my post, “Test the Wisdom of What You’re Doing or Thinking of Doing.”)
Unfortunately, since the cry of suffering is itself a function of our being in control of the mind … that’s why the soul is crying out for help … we usually don’t have the mental space to be aware that the answer that comes from the ego-mind is not in our best interest. And so we are lost.
If we were able to listen to our heart, we would hear the cry of pain at, for example, frustration, as being our heart wanting to be freed of the craving that is the source of frustration. Our true Buddha nature, our heart, is pure. It has no cravings, no neuroses. It knows it has everything it needs inside itself to be at peace and happy. There is no internal or external struggle.
So if we were able to listen to our heart, the guidance provided would be reject the guidance we receive from our ego-mind. Instead return home to our heart, see things through our heart, react to everything with dispassion, and be at peace and happy.
As I’ve written in previous posts, the bottom line of life’s struggle is one between the ego-mind and the heart … not as most think between oneself and the world around one. The mind cannot comprehend the heart, faith, trust, love. And so it responds as it does. Every time our ego-mind asserts itself, we would be wise to reject it’s guidance because it will just cause us suffering.
Unfortunately, when the ego-mind hears the pain of frustration, for example, its solution is that you need to work even harder to achieve what you want. Or perhaps substitute a different goal. Or just get angry at the person who is causing the frustration. Every type of suffering we experience, the ego-mind’s answer is basically more of the same. Find a way to get what we don’t have and want and/or blame someone for our efforts not being successful.
When we receive such guidance, ideally we would have the awareness to understand that it will just cause us more suffering and reject that guidance as not being right for us. (See my post, “Test the Wisdom of What You’re Doing or Thinking of Doing.”)
Unfortunately, since the cry of suffering is itself a function of our being in control of the mind … that’s why the soul is crying out for help … we usually don’t have the mental space to be aware that the answer that comes from the ego-mind is not in our best interest. And so we are lost.
If we were able to listen to our heart, we would hear the cry of pain at, for example, frustration, as being our heart wanting to be freed of the craving that is the source of frustration. Our true Buddha nature, our heart, is pure. It has no cravings, no neuroses. It knows it has everything it needs inside itself to be at peace and happy. There is no internal or external struggle.
So if we were able to listen to our heart, the guidance provided would be reject the guidance we receive from our ego-mind. Instead return home to our heart, see things through our heart, react to everything with dispassion, and be at peace and happy.
As I’ve written in previous posts, the bottom line of life’s struggle is one between the ego-mind and the heart … not as most think between oneself and the world around one. The mind cannot comprehend the heart, faith, trust, love. And so it responds as it does. Every time our ego-mind asserts itself, we would be wise to reject it’s guidance because it will just cause us suffering.
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