Suffering Through The Lens Of Oneness With God Posted in: One And Different, Perfection in Seeming Imperfection
From the point of view of us not being God the world may appear to be mainly a place of suffering and ignorance. After all, it is a place of birth, death, old age, and disease. And we don’t really know with certainty who we are, or the limits of our power, or the connection between desire and realisation of dreams etc. Religions tend to emphasise along these lines.
But what about if for a moment we look at our situation not so much through the lens of our difference from God, but through the lens of our oneness with God? Our experience then becomes his experience, and we start to understand it is through us that he accesses all manner of viewpoints otherwise out of reach while wearing his fully self-aware omniscient/omnipotent hat. For example, the simple joy of achieving successes against the odds (having uncertainty of outcome), the experience of progressing over time from unmanifest to manifest, the joy of self discovery, the exhilaration and relief of learning I am not this body, the experience of chanting of the maha mantra for the first time, feelings of child-like wonder upon observing nature and the universe etc., etc. And we start looking at our situation very differently … for example, asking ourselves how does this apparent suffering, or lack of self awareness, serve me? It changes everything.
It then becomes not a question of blaming or not blaming God for our suffering/ignorance, but praising God for the genius of this ever expanding experiential self-knowing lila … and feeling blessed to be a part of it.
In a way, by dint of our simultaneous oneness with God (difference accepted), we are simply God looking in variously focused ways, at himself, and/or facets of himself, with blinkers on.
Thus everyone, knowingly or unconsciously, is serving God. No matter one is a believer or atheist … such mindsets simply delivering different flavours.
From my side, while it may be tough sometimes, I say to God, if it serves you, you are welcome. And I will try to maintain this attitude next time it gets really bad 🙁 🙂