You have heard that the only thing that we can sacrifice is our suffering. What does sacrifice mean? Sacrifice means originally to make holy. Does it mean that we have to make our suffering holy? No, its meaning is far deeper. As long as I identify with my suffering, as long as I ascribe it to myself, I will remain identified with it. Now whatever was made holy originally meant that with which all personal connection had been given up. It belonged then to God. If you like you can substitute for the word "holy" the word "conscious". You cannot become conscious of anything in yourself as long as you identify with it. To become really conscious of anything in yourself is to be no longer identified with it, no longer it. If I become conscious of my mechanical forms of suffering and internal account-making and my negative states, they are no longer me. I detach myself from them, I let them go, as it were, I no longer feel myself by means of them. As a result, my feeling of myself will change. This act allows transformation to work and whatever is real in your suffering you will meet on a higher level completely transformed into something else, but as long as you tie yourself down to your suffering and really feel yourself through your suffering—in fact, feel your own importance in this way—you cannot expect any transformation. As I once said long ago, it is like standing on a plank and trying to lift the plank. You have to step aside, and then it is quite easy to lift it. Nicoll
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 09:11:36 +0000
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