Ask The Master: 27 Dec 2007

Q. Is enlightenment the only way out of this world of pain and misery?

There is one thing you need to understand first: enlightenment is NOT an escape from pain! On the contrary, it is born of a deep insight into the nature of pain, a profound and total understanding of ‘Why am I unhappy? What is it in me that is causing this pain?’

Just to see with intense inner clarity the nature and cause of pain, will cause pain to evaporate of its own accord - because it no longer has a reason to exist in you. And this realization brings with it a state of absolute bliss, which is the state of enlightenment.

Enlightenment allows you to see, for the first time, that what you called happiness and contentment earlier were not true happiness and true contentment. Enlightenment showers upon you real bliss, real ecstasy. It gives you a taste of the real. But remember, none of this can happen till you have crossed the ‘pain barrier’ - a total understanding of the whole spectrum of pain. Enlightenment is certainly not an ‘easy way out’ of pain! Understand that.

And in a way, you need to be thankful for the pain and suffering you experience, because they are the catalysts that set you upon your quest for truth and transcendence.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Uncommon Answers to Common Questions