B"H
Initiation Into A Higher State of Consciousness After Pain
Most often, if not always, there is a large measure of pain that precedes the initiation into a higher state of consciousness.
Although I don't like it I have to accept that it is there. I have to accept that
people create their own pain no one can help them until *they* are
ready to surrender their pain. I have to accept that people will hurt
themselves and bring disasters upon themselves until surrender. I
wish I could stop them, I can't. I have no right to stop them from
hurting themselves just because it hurts me to see it. Our job is to
be there when someone is ready to surrender, to serve as a witness
that there is life after surrender, not to alleviate their pain.
Is there a word of religious wisdom that has not been said? I have to
wait until others are ready to hear. They will hear in their time,
not in mine. I am not a healer. I am not a teacher.
As for striving to make the world better: I believe we have to, but
not really in order to make the world better, which we don't. We
struggle to make the world better because that is a spiritual test
*for us* to see if we will still trust in God when things are so, so
wrong. It is a test to see if we will turn on God when It does not do
as we think it should. It is a test of our humility. Can we
continue to trust that God's judgement is greater than our own even
when we see suffering. We must fight for justice and to alleviate
pain for everything we're worth - but in the end we lose that
battle. We lose the battle against injustice because there are two
parties to injustice, the perpetrators and those who allow it to
happen and continue until they cannot bear any more and they
surrender. Only upon losing the battle against injustice, if our
faith in God's justice is still strong can we believe it is sure. We
give up our illusion of being able to control the world, even for the
sake of bettering it, we surrender to a justice higher than our
understanding. For this surrender we are given the gift of knowing
that which is above understanding.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat
