Grateful for suffering

Sometimes it seems as though we should have the most gratitude for suffering.
Suffering leads to final clarity.

Be grateful for suffering.

This moment is all there is

That which takes you out of the joy of being is negative thought. Some thought of lost opportunity or regret or anxiety takes you out of the moment. There is quite literally nothing but this very moment. This moment is all there is.

Living with darkness

Living with one's darkness is traumatic. Seeing all the levels of manipulation and selfishness of the ego is truly humbling. The only salvation is to realize that the ego is a superimposition. Not reality. Only Life is real.

Liberation from suffering

Suffering is caused by persistently holding on to certain thoughts.
Libertion is caused by persistently holding onto the one thought which nullifies the effect of the thought causing suffering.

Realize that all there is is consciousness. Irrespective of the external appearance.
Deeply realize that liberation is always already the case.

The main challenge is that suffering thoughts are dense and have a strong gravitational pull. Hence one must constantly remind oneself of liberation. That is the goal.

Constant and ceasless self enquiry as the witness consciousness. That alone is liberation.

Caught in the dream of thought

Ultimately, it comes down to your reactions to situations.
Either your reactions take you deeper into the mess and keep you attached to the dream of thought.
Or your reactions keep you detached from falling further into the dream of thought.

You are awareness aware of being aware.

If you have forgotten this, it means you are stuck in the dream of thought.

It is wise to avoid pulling yourself down into the dream of thought. Let this be the basis of your reactions to life situations.

To give up the desire to protect the self image at all costs is the price.

Suffering self importance

The suffering that you endure is in direct proportion to your sense of self importance.

Suffering occurs when self image is hit.  Sometimes, during daily mundane interaction, ego is hit. This attack on the ego is hard to endure. It immediately sets up thoughts of self defense and self justification to minimize the imaginary damage to the self image. Self justification keeps you stuck in the cycle of denial. To truly admit your mistake seems like a calamity. To accept that you are wrong is terrible to endure.

But once you admit your mistake, you are already on the way to repairing ' damage'. So sometimes one has to swallow up one' s pride and accept one's mistake. The only way out of suffering. Otherwise the cycle of self justification will keep running in the mind and keep the mind running. To still the mind, the mistake has to be accepted.