Why Do We Suffer? | Eckhart Tolle on Awakening and the Purpose of Suffering

That is the reason why suffering has a purpose in this world. Suffering is here, including even those forms of suffering that are entirely generated by the mind, that too is there to ultimately awaken you. So you have the suffering that is generated through this misuse of the mind, unconscious thinking, and you have suffering that comes through encountering disaster in one form or another in your life. That's not to be denied. And in the course of this weekend, we will explore how that also can become an opening into transcendence. And it often is, you will hear stories of people who have, who were confronted with most extreme forms of suffering and were able to go beyond it, not by denying it, but by transcending. There's a huge difference between denial and transcendence. We'll be looking at that. So there's the person who lives confronted with problems and with challenges, and there is the potential of discovering, and sometimes through encountering extreme forms of disaster, but not always, not necessarily, but there's a potential of discovering within yourself a dimension of depth that transcends who you are as a person. And in this moment, when the thinking mind stops for a moment and is replaced with an aware presence, then the transcendent dimension has emerged in you. And the invitation to you is right here and now to see if you can invite that dimension into your life. And it is almost as if you disappeared temporarily, what you, before you called I, because when you're not thinking and just are aware, then the person has temporarily subsided and an aware presence has arisen, and that's a discovery of the transcendent you, or the, as I call it sometimes, the deep I. And for some people it comes, and there's many, many accounts throughout history, it comes through encountering extreme forms of suffering. I know that Steve Taylor will probably address it. He's done a lot of research, and we have one speaker. I don't want to say too much, who encountered awakening through very extreme form of suffering. And that is the potential for awakening that is hiding beyond the seemingly most dreadful thing that could happen to you. And it's all expressed symbolically, whether or not you relate to it as a, whether you're a Christian or you're not a Christian, you simply understand there's something there that the symbol of the cross points to. It doesn't, this is something, I don't think it's fully understood by most churches or conventional Christians, that what the symbol of the cross points to, and a man who is dying on the cross, to me that is the archetype of human and what is possible. The cross is a torture instrument. It's an expression of extreme suffering. So you have this human being on a torture instrument. Now, then something happens. There is this human being dies, this in a state of surrender, not my will, but thy will be done. The human being dies in a state of surrender, and the very torture instrument is a symbol for the divine. The cross is a sacred symbol, but the cross is also a torture instrument. The torture instrument, the greatest obstacle to fulfillment, the greatest obstacle to life, it seems, is also potentially the opening into the transcendent dimension. And I believe this to me is the deep symbolism of the cross. And traditionally, the humans, many humans who encountered awakening, who encountered it through extreme suffering, and that drove them to a point of surrender, that drove them, because they couldn't stand the pain anymore, that drove them to the state of acceptance of what is. And then suddenly the vertical dimension opened up. That's also, you could say the cross also points to the two dimensions, the horizontal dimension and the vertical dimension. So as awareness arises or presence, then it begins to shine through the person. The person no longer has, doesn't no longer have the density that completely obscures the awareness, the consciousness, the unconditioned consciousness underneath. And it's often the case that the density is destroyed by a suffering. And that is the, that is the reason why suffering has a purpose in this world. Suffering is here, including even those forms of suffering that are entirely generated by the mind, that too is there to ultimately awaken you. So you suffer and the suffering, all of you have, you have been through different forms of suffering, some very deep, some just a succession of many, many minor frustrations and things going wrong. So you somehow left, you lost confidence in, you lost belief that this world would ultimately be able to satisfy you or make you happy, say that's not it. And perhaps you became frustrated with yourself. That's possible too. So the suffering is a potential awakener. It has a purpose and it is there to destroy you ultimately, or at least to crack, to create a crack in the egoic shell. And then something emerges through the crack. Some people in this lifetime continue to have an ego, but it's no longer totally, it's no longer a impenetrable shell. It had, through suffering, it has received cracks here and there. There's a, is it Leonard Cohen? I think he has a song or poem. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in or gets out, I would say. So suffering destroys the false self, the identification, complete identification with your form identity.