Beyond Mind there is no Suffering
Extract from the book I am That ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
Questioner: The universe
does not seem a happy place to live in. Why is there so much suffering?
Maharaj: Pain is physical;
suffering is mental. Beyond the mind there is no suffering. Pain is merely a
signal that the body is in danger and requires attention. Similarly, suffering
warns us that the structure of memories and habits, which we call the person (vyakti),
is threatened by loss or
change.
Pain is essential for the survival of the body, but none compels you to suffer.
Suffering is due entirely to clinging or resisting; it is a sign of our
unwillingness to move on, to flow with life.
As a sane life is free of pain, so
is a saintly life free from suffering.
Q: Nobody has suffered more
than saints.
M: Did they tell you, or do
you say so on your own? The essence of saintliness is total acceptance of the
present moment, harmony with things as they happen. A saint does not want
things to be different from what they are; he knows that, considering all
factors, they are unavoidable. He is friendly with the inevitable and,.
therefore, does not suffer. Pain he may know, but it does not shatter him. If
he can, he does the needful to restore the lost balance -- or he lets things
take their course.
Q: He may die.
M: So what? What does he
gain by living on and what does he lose by dying? What was born, must die; what
was never born cannot die. It all depends on what he takes himself to be.
Q: Imagine you fall mortally
ill. Would you not regret and resent?
M: But
I am dead already, or, rather, neither alive nor dead. You see my body behaving
the habitual way and draw your own conclusions. You will not admit that your
conclusions bind nobody but you. Do see that the image you have of me may be
altogether wrong. Your image of yourself is wrong too, but that is your
problem. But you need not create problems for me and then ask me to solve them.
I am neither creating problems nor solving them.