Once again...it is my hope that we might consider and discuss the Teachings in the UB regarding how to reduce our personal suffering....especially so, in context of this discussion and topic, of that suffering we endure at the hands and by the acts of others upon us and to us, either now or in the past. I am not here to give advice nor to criticize any other by such consideration.


So...what are some of these "practical methods" given in the UB? Many, perhaps all, of these are known to humanity without the specific UB text on the matter....but those teachings contribute a great deal to such considerations.


1. Prayer - https://truthbook.com/search/UBParagrap ... &start=all

The efficacy of prayer is determined by two factors - the first is sincerity and the second is our growing experiential wisdom. No matter how self centered and immature is our plea, prayer is a vital connection which delivers results - not always the one we pray for....but prayer does change the one who prays and delivers faith assurance at a minimum and grows relationship with God within.

2. Forgiveness - https://truthbook.com/search/UBParagrap ... &start=all

We are taught that we are forgiven AS we forgive. So long as we harbor anger, hate, revenge, or any other related feelings toward others, we have not yet received the full measure and ministry of forgiveness for ourselves. We are taught that we do not determine the amount of forgiveness available to us by our forgiveness of others but we do determine the amount we might receive.

Until we forgive those that use and abuse and revile and harm us, we cannot hope to love them nor can we expect to be soothed and healed from the harm we have suffered by them either. We simply cannot heal and grow beyond our own suffering while holding grudges and resentments. Not possible!


3. Love one another - https://truthbook.com/search/UBParagrap ... &start=all

We must learn to forgive all hurt and harm received by others and then love them sufficiently to understand them and why/how they make the choices they have which have hurt us and others to even begin to love them. This ultimately requires the experiential and spiritual maturity to give the Divine form of love on the progressive love scale of the Golden Rule: https://truthbook.com/search/UBParagrap ... &start=all

4. Brotherly love - https://truthbook.com/search/UBParagrap ... &start=all


5. Fatherly love - https://truthbook.com/search/UBParagrap ... rch=Search



It is often true that we suffer primarily because of our grip upon our suffering. A grip that must be loosened and then let go. I learned of a most effective method of catching monkeys in India and in Africa by some tribes. The monkey trap can take many forms, one is a heavy clay pot with a narrow opening and bulbous body....you place a banana inside and when the monkey grabs onto the banana they cannot get their hand out without letting go of the banana....but they won't do that! When chased they will drag that heavy clay pot around until they are eaisily caught as they cannot climb or run or escape the hunter who uses the monkey trap.


We must be smarter than the monkey!!! But we often grasp onto our emotional response to our suffering and the perpetrator and cause of our suffering and we grip it so tightly that we cannot escape it or the very real consequences that comes by this relentless grip. Learning to release this grip upon our suffering takes time....and help. To be clear, it is a certainty that letting go is not a natural ability...indeed it requires a spiritual response and a thoughtful process. But also to be clear....we are serving our own best interests to learn how to release our grip upon such feelings!


But we must learn to serve our own best interest to take the final step in our healing and emergence from the pain and suffering. We must learn how better to respond in all situations and remove our animal based self interest and importance emotions from our daily life too. We must learn response-ability: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5029


6. Serve others - In some ways these steps are progressive but there is lots of overlap and simulteaneous efforts too. We begin with prayer and then forgiveness and understanding and then brotherly love and then abiding Divine affection and such a personal religious experience will manifest itself in the desire and compelling need to share and serve others.


It's a natural growth....as natural as a seed becoming sprout and then plant with branches and then with flower and then with fruit and then with seed to then sow itself eternally.


I certainly do not claim to have any expertise in the above...but I do have some experience and know that by changing my own responses to the circumstances and situations and relationships of life that I have suffered less at the hands of others and have enjoyed a growing poise and confidence and joy in my life over time. Anger is like a stone hurled into the hornets nest....it does nothing to the hornets compared to what they do to us!! I do have much experience with anger and lugging around a heavy load of a monkey trap while tightly gripping that banana of indignation and anger and blame!!! It's amazing how good it feels, how liberating it is, to simply let go of that dang banana!!!!


I hope others might share their own experiences and thoughts regarding the teachings we share here together. I wonder if "personality issues" might be determined more about our response mechanisms and habits than any imbedded or inherent or natural psychological issues?? I believe the UB teaches that the more we spiritualize our minds and actualize our relationship with God then the less effect such troubles should have in our minds. Sometimes we just have to learn to let go of that banana!! Or so I've found. That jar of bad memories and bad feelings seems to get bigger and bigger and heavier and heavier until we do learn to let go and leave it behind.


Best wishes to all!

Bradly

159:1.4 Simon Peter was the apostle in charge of the workers at Hippos, and when he heard Jesus thus speak, he asked: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?” And Jesus answered Peter: “Not only seven times but even to seventy times and seven. Therefore may the kingdom of heaven be likened to a certain king who ordered a financial reckoning with his stewards. And when they had begun to conduct this examination of accounts, one of his chief retainers was brought before him confessing that he owed his king ten thousand talents. Now this officer of the king's court pleaded that hard times had come upon him, and that he did not have wherewith to pay this obligation. And so the king commanded that his property be confiscated, and that his children be sold to pay his debt. When this chief steward heard this stern decree, he fell down on his face before the king and implored him to have mercy and grant him more time, saying, `Lord, have a little more patience with me, and I will pay you all.' And when the king looked upon this negligent servant and his family, he was moved with compassion. He ordered that he should be released, and that the loan should be wholly forgiven.

159:1.5 “And this chief steward, having thus received mercy and forgiveness at the hands of the king, went about his business, and finding one of his subordinate stewards who owed him a mere hundred denarii, he laid hold upon him and, taking him by the throat, said, `Pay me all you owe.' And then did this fellow steward fall down before the chief steward and, beseeching him, said: `Only have patience with me, and I will presently be able to pay you.' But the chief steward would not show mercy to his fellow steward but rather had him cast in prison until he should pay his debt. When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were so distressed that they went and told their lord and master, the king. When the king heard of the doings of his chief steward, he called this ungrateful and unforgiving man before him and said: `You are a wicked and unworthy steward. When you sought for compassion, I freely forgave you your entire debt. Why did you not also show mercy to your fellow steward, even as I showed mercy to you?' And the king was so very angry that he delivered his ungrateful chief steward to the jailers that they might hold him until he had paid all that was due. And even so shall my heavenly Father show the more abundant mercy to those who freely show mercy to their fellows. How can you come to God asking consideration for your shortcomings when you are wont to chastise your brethren for being guilty of these same human frailties? I say to all of you: Freely you have received the good things of the kingdom; therefore freely give to your fellows on earth.”

159:1.6 Thus did Jesus teach the dangers and illustrate the unfairness of sitting in personal judgment upon one's fellows. Discipline must be maintained, justice must be administered, but in all these matters the wisdom of the brotherhood should prevail. Jesus invested legislative and judicial authority in the group, not in the individual. Even this investment of authority in the group must not be exercised as personal authority. There is always danger that the verdict of an individual may be warped by prejudice or distorted by passion. Group judgment is more likely to remove the dangers and eliminate the unfairness of personal bias. Jesus sought always to minimize the elements of unfairness, retaliation, and vengeance.