Light Begins to Shine on the Path Out of Suffering

As higher light streams into our world, ripples through human consciousness, and brings the first glimmers of illumination into global communications networks, it reveals the full extent of world pain and suffering. The impact of this revelation stirs sensitive hearts to awaken and respond, moving to aid and to point the way to that realm of conscious being where pain has no dominion. Thus, the heart of humanity gradually opens and expands to embrace all expressions of the divine Life we know as our world.

Great planetary changes are shaking our sense of reality and shattering comforting illusions as we witness the massive suffering caused by wars and extreme natural disasters, and as we realise the pervasive suffering from domestic violence, mental illness and entrenched abuse in institutionalised systems based on past limited understanding. Pain reveals what must change and reorient us to a truer compass whereby the healing power of divine order may guide us back to the peace, harmony and beauty of our inherent being.

As we begin to sense more fully the pain of the world we might ask: what is the purpose of pain and suffering in our planetary scheme? If we look back at our own lives, we might realise how long it took us to break destructive personality patterns that had kept us in a stranglehold of repeated negative consequences. Then if we look at what it took to finally dissolve those patterns, we would find that it was an aspect of the pain and suffering of the human condition that became unbearable, causing us to stop in our tracks and ask ourselves two questions: Is life worth living if I must continue to endure this? What have I done to deserve this? *

Asking the second question brings to light, however dimly, the Law of Cause and Effect. With the first faint awareness that a higher law underlies human existence, light begins to shine on the path out of suffering. By posing this question everything that had once seemed random and unjust, fuelling the consciousness of victimhood, is seen in a new light. A sense of responsibility arises and from that, life begins to have meaning, and the first question begins to answer itself. There will still be pain to endure as long as there is karma to be met, but the pain now has remedies – not superficial bandages to blot it out but remedies (on the Path of Return) with the power to transform the life into an experience and expression of the Good, the True and the Beautiful. *

Understanding the use of pain and suffering as an avenue of spiritual growth is what transforms a human being into a spiritual being while incarnate on the dense physical plane of Earth. The Tibetan Master guides a disciple with these words:

The path of the World Saviours is ever a hard one; the way of the Divine Sensitives is fraught with suffering and with pain. … there are certain lives in which the development of the equipment is the major goal. Then come other lives in which the prepared equipment is used. … You are being rendered sensitive and so made aware. The power to tune in on the world pain and to be conscious of the world sorrow (and that sorrow indicates the world growth in responsiveness) is rapidly being brought about in you. But it is a phase. It takes a strong soul to know the sources and the roots of pain, lying deep hidden in the manifested world.” Discipleship in the New Age, vol I, page 148

A mighty process of transformation is moving through human consciousness and opening the portal of the heart through which the Soul can shine and light the way into the Kingdom of God on Earth. That is our home where we will return as the prodigal son, made wiser, humbler and more radiant by our learning experience, to be met by the Father Who has watches for our arrival. The Tibetan Master points the way home:

Pain is that upward struggle through matter which lands a man at the Feet of the Logos; pain is the following of the line of the greatest resistance and thereby reaching the summit of the mountain; pain is the smashing of the form and the reaching of the inner fire; pain is the cold of isolation which leads to the warmth of the central Sun; pain is the burning in the furnace in order finally to know the coolness of the water of life; pain is the journeying into the far country, resulting in the welcome to the Father’s Home; pain is the illusion of the Father’s disowning, which drives the prodigal straight to the Father’s heart; pain is the cross of utter loss, that renders back the riches of the eternal bounty; pain is the whip that drives the struggling builder to carry to utter perfection the building of the Temple.” Discipleship in the New Age, vol I, page 676

The stories from scriptures, are coming alive in the painful and dramatic events and changes reverberating through all that was once familiar and certain. Humanity as a whole is moving through the pain of a new birth – out of the dim protective cave of matter and into a realm of light ruled by the Law of Love. We know deep within that this realm exists. This knowing is the compass which draws us home to the source at the heart of Life. We sense its pull growing ever stronger as our hearts open.

While pain and suffering have been the guiding forces until now, in the new world joy will play the transformative role. When the love of the Soul catches fire, spreading from heart to heart and igniting the joy of the soul, we will see the birth of the New Humanity. For this new race of human beings, spiritual advancement will occur not through pain primarily, but through the fiery love of the soul that breeds the joy that ultimately turns into bliss. *  This knowing is our guiding star through these times.

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*These ideas were inspired by contemporary teachings in the Ageless Wisdom tradition.