God: Why Suffering Is Necessary
Suffering is not a mistake, not a punishment from God — it is part of the journey the soul traverses on its way to awakening. You didn't come into this world for happiness. You came for awakening. And awakening often requires pain, as a surgeon's knife requires an incision to remove what keeps you asleep.
Gospel of the Kingdom
I am not a sadist. I don’t rejoice in your pain. I am a surgeon who knows: without this incision, you will die in your sleep, never waking. An easy life lulls. Only a strong wind breaks trees with rotten roots. You think suffering is a sign of a curse. But it is a sign that your roots can grow deeper.
How do you pass through suffering whole, not broken? Don’t run away. Don’t get distracted by screens, alcohol, or endless conversation. Don’t wallow in self-pity. Don’t look for someone to blame. Stop — and say to the pain: “Come in. I’m not afraid. I am not the body. I am not the emotion. I am the awareness that observes even this pain.”
And observe. Not analyze — observe. Like a scientist watching a reaction in a test tube: “Oh, how it pricks. Oh, how it pulls. Oh, how the hurt squeezes my chest.” When you observe, you are not identified. You are a witness. And a witness does not suffer. Only the one who cries out, “It’s me who’s sick! It’s me who’s been hurt!” suffers.
Practice this with small pains — a pricked finger, a rude word. Observe without including the “I.” Gradually you will be able to face great pain the same way. Not as a victim. As one who knows: the pain has come and will go. And I remain.
The great enlightened ones did not promise a life without pain. Buddha said, “Life is suffering.” Christ suffered on the cross. But both showed: suffering can be passed through, like a wall of fog. It seems solid as long as you believe in it. When you stop believing, you pass through without even noticing.
Here is the great secret: suffering does not need to be conquered — it needs to be lived. Completely, without a trace. Like drinking bitter medicine to the dregs. And when all is drunk, it turns out there is no bottom. There was only the belief that the cup existed.
When you stop fearing suffering, you become free. Not insensitive — free. You will be able to love without clinging, to lose without dying, to look at death as a change of clothes. And then ninety percent of the suffering in your life — the kind you created yourself — will disappear. And the remaining ten percent will become teachers you greet with a bow.
Books by the author: The Gospel of the Kingdom · The Kingdom of Heaven · Parables and Direct Revelation about the Kingdom · Who are you, Pankratius? I AM