¶THE NATURE OF SUFFERING
(Q’uo, April 3, 1988)
I am Q’uo. I greet you in the love and in the light of the One Infinite Creator. It is a great privilege to be called to your group to answer your query about suffering. You wish to know what the cause of suffering may be, whether it may be due to a lack of perception of oneness, what its cause is, and what its cure?
We are minded to discuss a suffering life that all within your culture are aware exists, that of a teacher, Master, and Christ known to you as Jesus of Nazareth. When we examine the life pattern of this individual we see an entity thrown apart, even within childhood, suffering the loneliness and lack of companionship which accompanies the unusual and serious student in the small child’s body. For by the age of what you call your teens, the one known as Jesus was very learned, speaking as a rabbi would, knowledgeably of much literature, much memorization, much insight. This lonely entity walked in his curiosity into many places, always the stranger, seeking information, seeking guidance, seeking understanding, and suffering always the loneliness of the stranger.
When the time had come to make the final dedication of the life’s work the one known as Jesus was aware of this great and momentous necessity. There had been clear communication within this entity with that which this entity called “I AM.” The ministry, the one known as Jesus knew in advance, would be difficult and would end in the physical death of his body. Why did this instrument of the One Infinite Creator accept this suffering, with no strife or struggle, no contentional argument? This is what we would explore.
There is much of what is called truth which is indeed not truth, but a multiplicity of ever-shifting truths which function in what you may call a social way, in order to slide one through the incarnation with the least possible friction. There is another Truth, an absolute and unchanging Truth, a mysterious, puzzling, ever-calling Truth which any within your illusion cannot see but only know through the experience of Love.
Love is the great One Original Thought. It cannot be bought. It cannot be manipulated, and it cannot be killed. It may become obvious that we are not speaking of romantic love, which is prey to all these difficulties. We are not speaking of the love of friendship or any other definition of love which may be put into words. Indeed, could we find an unique word which would express the beautiful, terrible Love which created all that there is, we would use it. Yet this concept lies so far within the area of the deeper mind its reality can only be reached through the non-words which may be called faith. This Love is single, and within it are all things, all entities, thoughts, artifacts, seeming objects and each and every energy within the infinity of creation. Each of you is Love. This is your reality, your absoluteness, your unchangeable nature, your Truth.
Suffering lies not upon this level but upon the level, for the most part, of half-seen truths, truths that are relative to the situations and conditions of your society and culture. We realize that there are those who experience suffering in physical ways: pains, hunger, sickness, and death, that process which is so feared among your peoples. By far, however, the greatest amount of suffering among your peoples is due to the ingestion and acceptance of cultural and social truths, and in this we include theology of all kinds, as standards against which to measure the self. This instrument, for example, experiences continual pain to one degree or another. The instrument’s suffering, however, is far more emotional than physical. For this entity suffers in wonderment that she cannot fulfill her own expectations of what her service, her energy, and her life should contain. Are you then suffering emotionally, each to whom we speak? We assert that this suffering is paramount.
We could weep at the suffering caused in the name of truth. And as we go back within your planet’s history, we see and ask you to see with us how each time and age and culture created its own bigotry, narrow-mindedness and distortion of harmony and unity, marking each person out in some way as unacceptable. And because all of the culture expresses much the same bias, the entity experiencing incarnation at any cultural moment will find that it is suffering because it cannot be that which the culture and the society have declared appropriate.
May we say that those whose spiritual orientation is rigid, by their judging of others in a harsh and overt manner, create much suffering in the name of the very teacher, the one known as Jesus, who moved into this vibration to call those who suffered, those who were mocked and despised. This entity was not interested in the righteous, those who knew the truth of the culture, and we specifically in this term, culture, include organized religion, as this instrument calls it. For these judgments carry an enormous, though specious, weight among your peoples. Ah, we weep for you. Yours is a planet of sorrow, even upon the joyous day of Easter.
We move now to the contemplation of unity. We move out of the realm of the relative to the absolute, and we ask you to follow us. We ask you to release the opinions of the world, to release the dictates of what is expected, and especially in those suffering spiritually from teachings that do not show them the face of I AM, to release those harsh theological strictures which, though most helpful for some, have not been helpful for you, but have instead caused tremendous guilt and suffering. We ask you to turn from opinion-all opinion-and most especially your own, because this is Easter, because the energy of this planet at this moment is most light and full of life. We would ask you to experience directly the promise of which Easter is the symbol, the promise of the infinity of I AM.
When one moves away from I want, I feel, I think, I like, I dislike, and so forth, one is left empty and may perhaps feel that the comfortable structure that houses one’s ethics and principles have been left behind also. It is a naked feeling. It is a difficult feeling to achieve, for one who has not carefully examined the huge weight of opinion and accepted authority in one’s life has no idea of the percentage of the active portion of the active portion of the conscious mind which is involved in processing catalyst using these distortions, rather than experiencing catalyst with an open heart, an open mind, and a knowledge of the self’s true identity.
Thus, before we speak upon the purpose of suffering, we wish with steady hand and firm heart to present to you the concept that the truths which are relative and cultural must needs be examined carefully and analyzed closely so that one may see, to the best of one’s ability, what one’s own selfhood truly feels and thinks about that which the culture demands of one. This includes everything from the choice of career to the intricacies of relationships. So much of your communication is distorted by each entity’s attempt, conscious or unconscious, to manipulate one’s environment in such a way that one is positioned in a satisfactory angle to one’s culture, one’s acquaintances, and one’s self.
Cultures change. The self changes. These truths are relative. Those rules regarding behavior, for the most part, need constant re-examination, for that which has been true for you at one time will, of necessity, change and transform as you change and transform. We do not wish to suggest that it is necessary to change any thought or action. We only ask those who are suffering because they are homosexual, divorced, addicted or any other calamity need not think of themselves as lost to oneness, for all of these things are taking place within an illusion which is designed for a certain purpose. This certain purpose is absolute, and within the absolute purpose of spiritual evolution towards Love suffering is an absolute necessity.
The one known as Jesus the Christ noted that his kingdom was not of this world. Think you then that he meant the kingdom of the world of flowers and birds, spirits, and beauty? May we hasten to give our opinion, fallible though it may be, that this was never this entity’s intent. This entity had been courted as the hoped-for and earthly king of a specific people in a specific region. These people had a truth which was theological and, therefore, relative, made of opinion. This opinion was that this entity could lead a revolution, topple a government, and reign as the kings of Judah and Israel of old, a Jewish king for a Jewish nation. This entity wished none of the limitations of relativity. He wished to be limited in no way. For this entity focused always upon the absolute. And in his converse, he turned as much to his Father, Abba, as he did to any friend or student.
“My kingdom is not of this world,” he said. Not, we say, the world of experience, the world of opinion, the world of cultural demands, the world of theological limitations. When this instrument of the Father came at last to face that man which could spare the entity the one known as Jesus made no defense. His judge was puzzled, for he saw the suffering which had occurred and the suffering which was to come, which was prepared for the one known as Jesus, and could not understand why this humble teacher did not defend himself. Finally, in desperation, this entity simply asked, “Are you king of the Jews?”
Jesus the Christ, eyes calm spoke clearly. “You say that I am so,” said he. “Yet for one purpose came I unto this world, to bear witness to the Truth.”
His judge was immediately fascinated. “What is truth?” he asked.
Jesus the Christ only gazed into Pontius Pilate’s eyes, and Pontius Pilate saw the I AM of Love.
What is Truth, my children? In seeking for this answer the greatest spiritual suffering may be experienced, for as we have said, Truth is most often sought in the culture and in religious theology. And in this we include, to some extent, our own work with this instrument, not excepting ourself from the world of opinion, but consciously accepting that we who use words can never be, but only express, thus offering a manifestation which is but the shadow of our being, our I AM.
Truths and Truth, the relative and the absolute. There is a Truth; there is an absolute; and thus there is an end to suffering. That Truth lies in the kingdom which the one known as Jesus the Christ stated was not of this world, not of this world of opinion.
We ask you to gaze within. We ask you to gaze upon that which lies behind that which we are saying, our consciousness. All of you are suffering within the confines of a prison. It is the prison of your limitations. Your fingers stop and the air begins. Your feet stop, and the ground begins. There are separations of space between you and all other beings. There is the curtain behind the eyes of those with whom you wish to communicate which limits harmony. You are, to this extent, dead in a very real sense, and we want you to enter into the consciousness of life.
We want you to experience I AM. As you rest, speak that word, “I AM,” and find something come to life deep within. I AM. This is the kingdom of which Jesus the Christ spoke. For the essence of being, the essence, I AM, is that which we have called divine Love. It is not only that which loves all that there is; it is all that there is. It is not that through any agency you may become an associate of Christhood; it is that all of you shall eventually perceive the self as Christ. Or to put it another way, that one day, if we may use inaccurate terms, you shall be all Christ, all absolute, pure being. Rest in this consciousness for a moment, and experience life.
Where is Truth? Truth is in the absolutes that shine through the relative. Truth is in the smile, the laughter, and joy, the moments of kinship, the body’s intimate ecstasy in the making of physical love, the spontaneous reaction of deep compassion. And in the end, Truth in an absolute sense may, to the disciplined mind and heart, become the companion that walks beside you, through whose eyes you may see anew the whole and unified life lived in Love.
That which is called suffering is that against which the entity seeking to know love for the Creator, love for the self and service to others, may push against and may use, not as the stumbling block, but as the starting block. For each difficulty which causes suffering is that which has been arranged, that some distortion concerning the essence of love within your understanding may be examined, thought about further, and perhaps revised somewhat.
Each challenge gives one the chance to turn to I AM, to Beingness, and ask that infinite intelligence which is Love “What is the absolute principle which illuminates this situation?” Absolute Love may be hidden for long periods of time, and the questing process, the experience of pain and separation, may go on for a seemingly infinite period of time. Your people attempt to avoid, cover over, and patch up these situations to alleviate discomfort, without seeing the spiritual opportunity for new understanding in the light of that which is absolute.
We ask each to remember the experience of true, living consciousness, and then in faith to turn to the self and bless each wound, each limitation, each pain and each circumstance that causes suffering. For suffering is the sacrament, the food of spiritual evolution. May you rejoice in your troubles even as you suffer. May you roll the stone away from the tomb of your limited acceptance of damaging thoughts. May each look you take be fresh, and may you live in Love, and so love each other with a passion and a zeal that blesses each with whom you come in contact. You need say nothing. The I AM in you of which Jesus the Christ spoke, lies deep within you. For you are all that there is. It is simply the illusion which keeps you from that ultimate knowledge. By faith in the Love you have observed in whatever limited form may you enter into that life which is Love.
We hope that you do not accept suffering as something which must be done so that in the next incarnation you shall be rewarded. Instead, in all humility, know that your heaven lies waiting within you, just as your hell waits to embrace you. Your life experience is a matter of choices. Shall you follow truths, or shall you attempt to experience your own true being, your own inner I AM, and thus prepare the holy ground whereon you may see the face of your God, your Christ, your Love, your Peace, your light, your life.
¶NOTES TO OUR READERS
Thanks to all of you for your prayers for Carla’s health. She continues to need and appreciate them. The neck surgery has been postponed for the nonce.