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A Therapeutic Dilemma 87 PAIN AND SUFFERING
Also needed is an entirely new approach to pain and suffering, the chief experiences which bind us to duality. Through the strength gained by the practice of morality, devotion and detachment, the first step is to be open to pain and suffering and not to run from them. Sai Baba tells us that suffering should be welcomed as a valued teacher, as it humbles us, shakes us from attachment to the outer world, and quickens our yearning for transcendence. Pain and suffering represent attachment to the emotional body, to duality, and the only way to escape it, to become unaffected by it, is through renunciation and detachment.
RENUNCIATION AND DETACHMENT
Renunciation means resisting being affected by the outer world of duality by restraining consciousness from flowing to it through the senses, desires and ego (see Appendix IV, the challenge of chakra 5). It is not a negation of all creation, only a resisting of the influence of the senses, desires and ego on consciousness. Through this process the outer world ceases to be seen as comprised of separate and distinct entities, but rather as one glorious and indivisible whole—the embodiment of God.
Detachment is quite a bit different from repression or denial. It is not a defense mechanism, which hides feelings and fears from conscious awareness. It is the process of being open to feelings and fears, yet relating to them in a new way—surrendering them to God through devotion, in a way that renders one unaffected by them.2
By saying “yes” to pain as we do to pleasure, by not desiring one over the other, by being unaffected by pleasure or pain and unattached to the fruits of our labor, by offering it instead to God in an act of faith and devotion, we pull ourselves from the mind-ego complex—and from duality.
I’m not recommending the courtship of suffering, or even rushing into the process of detachment from ego, desire and pain. Nor am I advocating that retreat from the world that is justly criticized as “quietism.” The process of detachment is slow and requires patience and persistence. It’s like shaving: press too hard and you’ll be cut, too lightly and nothing happens. It is vitally important to know the amount of “tension” that’s right for each of us.


































































































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