How to overcome Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering often seem pointless and cruel.

How can any good come from tragedy?

Why would a benevolent universe allow such horrors?

The Universality of Pain

We all encounter adversity in life. Pain takes many forms:

• Physical pain from injury, illness, or aging
• Emotional pain of grief, loss, trauma, or abuse
• Mental anguish from depression, anxiety, or inner turmoil
• Spiritual crises of meaning, purpose, or connection

Suffering is woven into the fabric of human existence. We feel it acutely at times, while it simmers subtly at others. But as much as we may try, pain cannot be fully avoided.

Bashar says:

“The ideas of pain—all pain: mental pain, spiritual pain, emotional pain, physical pain—all forms of what you call pain are, from our perspective, the result of resistance of your natural self.”

Pain acts as friction and resistance to our true nature.

Pain's Lessons

Though unpleasant, adversity contains teachings about realigning with our deepest truths.

• Hardship builds empathy for those similarly struggling.
• Overcoming adversity develops strength and resilience.
• Suffering can uncover meaning and purpose in affliction.
• Healing fosters compassion and a desire to relieve others' burdens.
• Understanding the impermanent nature of pain breeds equanimity.

Insights from Bashar

Bashar explains that on the soul level, the eternal self chooses concentrated lessons to accelerate evolution. Challenges that might take many lifetimes to integrate can be condensed into a single focused incarnation, exponentially expediting growth. We forget that our souls willingly chose suffering's transformative potential.

To fully understand life's pains, we must examine them from the vantage point of the eternal soul.

• Suffering in physical life is fleeting, like a foot briefly stuck in a door
• The soul may choose adversity to prompt rapid growth
• Intense hardship now can prevent eons of struggle later

The Origins and Purpose of Suffering

Suffering's origins further illuminate reasons for its existence. Bashar teaches that pain functions as an indicator of resisting our natural flow or false definitions that contradict the soul's integrity. Going against our inner truths creates friction and struggle.

Yet this friction has value. Pain alerts us when we swim against deep currents of our being. It provides a "barometer" measuring alignment with our deepest purpose. Suffering becomes a compass guiding us home to self-realization.

In fact, Bashar radically suggests that our highest excitement indicates precisely where this flow wishes to take us. The most energizing pursuits will feel effortless, abundantly supported and soul-resonating. Ignoring these vital signals leads to unnecessary hardship. Suffering is the universe waving a red flag, begging us to course-correct towards joyful manifestation of our divine potentials.

"What must I believe in order to have this pain?"

Key Questions for Growth

Though we may never unearth definitive answers, Bashar encourages repeatedly asking empowering questions during struggles:

• "How can I grow from this experience?"
• "What is this trying to teach me?"
• "How can I find the positive in this situation?"

Though painful, life's hurdles often carry poignant lessons. Hardships frequently arise to:

• Teach us about personal limits. Adversity shows us where we are resisting our true flow. It signals misalignment with our natural state.
• Strengthen virtues. Suffering builds qualities like courage, patience, empathy.
• Deepen wisdom. Overcoming struggle helps us recognize what matters most.
• Foster compassion. Shared pains connect us with others' humanity.
• Prompt self-inquiry. Adversity asks us to examine limiting beliefs and definitions underlying our experiences.

Exposing limiting beliefs and attachments that underlie suffering is the first step in dissolving them. Once we identify constricting definitions, we can begin rewriting our personal narratives to align with soulful truths.

Reframing Adversity with New Definitions

We can break the cycle of suffering by re-framing adversity through new definitions:

• This pain means I had great love - I was blessed.
• My loved one would want me to keep living fully.
• Their spirit is still with me in memory.
• This pain is temporary. My true essence is eternal.
• I am strong enough to endure this.
• My difficulties can benefit others.
• I surrender to the flow of life.
• I trust this will ultimately lead to something positive.

Our experiences reflect our dominant definitions of truth. By consciously re-framing hardship, we start to transform suffering.

“Any definition you have at any given moment generates a self-perpetuating, self-fulfilling, self-sustaining, self-fulfilling automatic system of manifestation to support the definition, and make it seem as if for that moment it is the only true thing.”

The Bodhisattva Path

Another perspective reveals that evolved beings willingly endure agony to catalyze others' awakening. Instead of needing pain's lessons themselves, they act as Bodhisattvas - those who forego nirvana to compassionately liberate deluded realms. Their voluntary suffering powerfully touches hearts, reminding us of timeless truths.

Historical Examples

• Jesus - Endured crucifixion to redeem humanity's sins
• Gandhi - Hunger strikes and imprisonment to peacefully protest oppression
• Martin Luther King Jr. - Faced violence and hatred preaching equality
• Mother Teresa - Lived in poverty to serve the poor and destitute

Finding Light in Darkness

So in our darkest nights, we must remember that divine purpose likely dwells beyond the veil. Even horrendous evil may catalyze eventual redemption. Clinging to this faith can reveal light shining through life's most twisted chapters.

But "your mind will not always know the specifics, the 'why' of the many things you are choosing in life," Bashar wisely notes. We cannot grasp the eternal plan from our earthly fishbowl. Yet aligning with a larger trust allows meaning to emerge organically, even if the grand orchestration remains forever mysterious.

Bashar emphasizes staying open to learning, growing and finding the positive - no matter how cryptic suffering's origins may seem. Making meaning of life's most painful moments takes perseverance, courage and deep faith in our intrinsic divinity.

“You must begin to remember that you are an Infinite Eternal Being. What happens in your physical reality is the most temporary of experiences.”

Aligning with Your True Flow

So the idea, fundamentally, is that any time you feel pain, you are basically ignoring - either because you have been taught to ignore, or because you do not believe that you are truly deserving of love - but you are basically ignoring the thing that really excites you the most.

We suffer when we disconnect from our unique excitement and purpose. Adversity calls us realign with our deepest truths.

• Investigate beliefs creating suffering.
• Rewrite definitions holding you back.
• Follow what energizes you fully.
• Act in alignment with your highest truths.

As we cultivate faith in life's inherent goodness, we break free from victimhood into compassionate co-creation. The heaviest burdens become opportunities to discover liberation and help awaken planet Earth.

By connecting with your inner voice, your path becomes clear:

• Make time for silent meditation.
• Journal to explore your deepest values.
• Spend time in nature to calm anxious thoughts.
• Ask for spiritual guidance through prayer or intuition.
• Listen to your heart - what brings you joy and meaning?

In closing, Bashar offers a luminous reassurance:

"The idea, fundamentally, is to understand that no one is saying you have to have pain...You have to look at it from the big perspective too, not just from the perspective of the physical reality where things can sometimes seem interminable and not understandable. But from the soul’s point of view, some individuals will want to experience a highly concentrated focus in a certain direction which will then accelerate them that much more quickly in the areas they feel are important to them."

This eternal viewpoint is our saving grace. Behind the darkest clouds, wise purpose remains. All hardship can be endured when we remember the immortal spark blazing within. In your darkest moments, what gifts did you uncover?

How will you reframe your next challenge?

Share below!