fanofVan wrote:
How do we do that? The UB is actually filled with practical methods and teachings that I have found very helpful in my own life and can lead to a lighter load and less burden upon the path to Paradise. Suffering can be a great teacher....as well as a horrible burden...and we ultimately choose which it shall be....or so I have found and so the Papers teach us. No matter the degree or source or symptoms or timing of personal suffering and tragedy, each of us has the opportunity and the ability to rise above it and to abandon the suffering and loss we have experienced. It takes time and growth and a willingness to let go and give it up to God within who can ease the pain and lighten the burdens of this life...in all the many forms those may take.
Bradly

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=allThe 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=allWe 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=allWe 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=all4. Brotherly love -
https://truthbook.com/search/UBParagrap ... &start=all5. Fatherly love -
https://truthbook.com/search/UBParagrap ... rch=SearchIt 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=50296. 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
