Millions of people live entire lifetimes without noticing that their basic assumptions are leading them to hardship, suffering and death. Let's take a look at how some very simple adjustments to our outlook can drastically improve our freedom, health and success in life.
A great deal of what we do and think is often based around achieving 'status' in society in the form of increased social 'standing' and positioning in hierarchies of one kind or another.
This can be a cause of suffering in itself because we tend to do things to try to achieve that status which are against our own best interests (such as working very long hours, being dishonest or other unhealthy behaviors). People have thought for a long time that those with 'status' have more resources and more ability to choose freely - leading to less pain, so underlying the dysfunction is an attempt to feel good.
However, there are better ways to improve life and reduce pain than to become dependent on a predetermined life plan of climbing hierarchical pyramid structures and disowning personal power in the process. It often takes people a lifetime to realise that the power they thought they would gain from climbing up a hierarchy is little more than a fraction of the power they have been losing the whole time they were struggling to climb.
While it is true that the thought processes that lead us to get trapped and conned by artificial power systems in society are rooted in our own egoic sense of self, this does not mean that our sense of self is the problem. There is no need to try to eliminate the self or ego as a way to achieve liberation from suffering. In fact, this approach is yet another form of self destruction that only empowers those at the top of the artificial power pyramids.
While some 'spiritual' teachers have claimed (falsely and illogically) that ego is only ever destructive, the reality is that there is very often a healthy motivation behind many of the decisions we make which relate to our egoic sense of self. Ego isn't an enemy, so much as a part of us that needs to be balanced and to be released from struggling beneath the weight of false beliefs and survival responsibilities that don't belong to our ego.
Ego is only the Latin word for 'I', it is in a basic sense, the awareness and understanding that we have emerged as an individuated consciousness. We then tend to attach decisions, patterns and beliefs/thoughts on to our egoic thought structures and hold on to them for so long that they can seem to be unchangeable, but this is not really true.
The idea that the only possible solution to imbalanced ego is to try to eliminate self as an individuated being, misses a vast amount of important details and is like committing suicide to avoid a headache. We can instead become truly empowered in ways that the majority of 'spiritual teachers' have actually feared and have either deliberately or unconsciously led many of us away from - as they quietly let their thoughts be guided by their fear that runs them from their shadows.
So what of the idea of 'status'? Do we really need 'status' at all? Could it be that we need to collectively learn some important lessons to find a new way of living instead?
If a key goal of achieving status is really to prevent and end our own suffering, then perhaps a personal status of non suffering is far more valuable than a name badge, title or position on a fancy board or dining table.
Suffering essentially means 'having experiences that you don't want to have'. So to end suffering really means 'to successfully direct your life in ways that you prefer'.
Ending our own suffering in a real way is a wonderful achievement and is rarely one that humans reach. The path to attaining this 'status' is littered with pitfalls because there are so many seeming shortcuts that lead nowhere. To some, the most obvious 'solution' to non suffering would be to painlessly kill yourself, Hey presto.. no more suffering! Except, yes, there would be suffering because the part of you with real needs and desires would be hurt and snuffed out. The unconsciousness of death does not necessarily end suffering.
We need to achieve non suffering without ending desire if we are to live life to the full. This means that we need to understand how to create our lives powerfully and with enough balance that we create what we prefer, without overpowering others.
All of this is based on us actually knowing what we really need and this is the sticking point that stops many of us from escaping 'the rat race' of hierarchic competitiveness. We are bombarded with adverts and images of perfection that seem to only be achievable by us having more money and products - which can often lead us on a dead end hunt for more 'things', without ever really knowing that we don't NEED these things, we only think that we want them.
In truth, what fills in the gaps in us and in our souls, is love. Love fulfills needs and so is not just a simplistic feeling. Love is a mechanical process of understanding what is needed in any dynamic situation and doing whatever is needed to meet those needs. The first step in all of this is to deeply feel and understand what our needs truly are, which is itself an action driven by love. Love loves to meet needs!
Every decision that we make has the ability to either strengthen or weaken us as individuals. If we seek to strengthen ourselves only in form/appearance, such as happens when we try to climb imaginary social hierarchies, we will actually weaken ourselves over time. If, instead, we choose to understand ourselves internally, we stand a chance of strengthening ourselves in a lasting way and can draw on the internal power we build in a longlasting way. Corporations come and go, but your soul will always be present as long as you are.
Once we make the shift towards internal self empowerment, many new opportunities will be presented and many of the problems we thought we faced and that caused us to suffer, simply fall away. Of course, new challenges will arise, but we will be operating far more efficiently, with less distractions and be far more able to overcome them and benefit from the learning process they present us.
Of course, some people are quite attached to suffering and will never choose to totally end suffering - but for those who aim for effortless joy, the door is cracked open, you only need open yourself to new light and understanding in order to move closer to what so many still believe to be completely impossible. Liberation!
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