Beyond Pain and Pleasure

"The field of quantum possibility, in which love has opened doors otherwise unimaginable, is our soul's true habitat. The world of fear and limitation is not our home, and who among us is not profoundly weary of hanging out where we do not belong." ~ Marianne Williamson

Let’s be honest.  If someone were to give the choice right now between a Hershey Kiss and being poked with a sharp stick, I would gladly choose the chocolate.  We all tend to choose what is pleasurable over what is painful.  It is reflexive within our nervous systems.  And it is generally unconscious. 

Experience teaches us that we don’t always get what we want.  Despite affirmations and visualization, hard work and following the rules, prayer and adhering to the “correct” faith suffering finds us and makes us its own.  Despite a healthy diet, proper exercise and the best health care available we still get sick sometimes.  Sometimes life comes after us with a sharp stick and no chocolate.

Although we don’t like to admit it adversity makes us conscious.  Swami Satyananda said, “Remember this: suffering brings wisdom.  Pleasure takes it away.”  The “pleasure principle” keeps us asleep, pain can seem like a rude awakening.  Does this mean that we should torture ourselves?  Definitely not.  All we have to do is be open to life experiences. 

Yoga teaches us to develop and maintain a neutral ground which is beyond pain and pleasure.  We can’t have one without the other.  We can enjoy life without identifying with and clinging to that enjoyment.  We can endure suffering without becoming bitter and resentful.  Instead we can realize ourselves to be the witness of life experience.

When we attune ourselves to the inner witnessing awareness we begin to awaken to our deeper soul-identities.  We begin to understand that this world is not our home.  Instead, it is a collective hallucination.  We stop buying into pain and pleasure and awaken to the inherent bliss of our own nature: swarup-ananda. 

Sometimes this awakening comes suddenly and conclusively, most of the time not.  For most of us it takes consistent spiritual practice.  This means constant effort to remember who we are and where our true home is.  Our true home is heaven.  It is Love, not the self-centered, pleasure-principled love of ego-clinging, but the absolute and unconditional Love of God. 

The good news is that the more we practice the less we have to suffer.