Is my suffering my own doing or is it God's Will?
Q: Is my suffering my own doing or is it God's Will?
A: Suffering can be seen from the perspective of ego or the perspective of God:
From the perspective of ego, God is evil, punishing you through endless and pointless suffering, is not accepting you as you are and wants to get rid of you. Seeing suffering and God in this way, the ego wants to avoid them at all cost and consistently comes up with new ways to not face what is arising. It tries to hold onto its short, dear life and escape the Now by all means possible.
From the perspective of God, there is no suffering, only the ever-deepening alignment of mind/bodies with Him. So-called suffering is a beautiful, unique and sacred transformation. It is not personal and will eventually serve the process of re-alignment of many others. God also sees the ego's perspective and the way it tries to prolong suffering over time, and embraces that fully, too, always aiming to help the mind turn back towards Him.
Q: Who tries to prolong suffering, the ego or God? Is God giving us suffering so that we can turn towards him and become one with Him?
A: It is important to understand that suffering never is - it comes about when we are resisting what is. That resistance itself is the ego. The ego pretends to exist and tries to survive by making us look away from God and find our solutions in objective experience. As long as we keep doing that, our suffering will remain.
God, on the other hand, does not see suffering - from His perspective, things are unfolding perfectly and are becoming ever more refined expressions of His Infinity and Divinity. Part of this unfolding is the recognition that God is all there is, or that my Being is God's Being.
Q: When I read your answer, another question arose for me: if everything is God, then how should we treat our enemies?
A: Everything is God simply means that all humans, animals, plants, and objects share the same Source. However, many human beings do not consciously know this yet, which creates a huge fear in them that they are separate and temporary. This fear is often expressed in behaviour such as anger, jealousy, hatred, etc.
Accepting this, our role remains to always come from a place of Love. That could mean something different in each situation:
- In cases where the other person is open to exploring the mind and understanding God, we should speak to them and meet them at the level they are at (without trying to impose our views on them);
- In cases where the person believes that they are right no matter what, we could decide to leave;
- In cases where the person is violent or hating and is therefore dangerous, coming from a place of Love can mean calling the police or defending ourself and others in danger.
But really, no one is an "enemy". Different people are just conscious to different extents, and are completely innocent in their actions and behaviours. No matter in what way we react, we must remain aware that they are doing the best they can, and that everything is unfolding perfectly.
