Is it Possible to Live a Life Free of Suffering?

Suffering is a part of our life, yet it can point us towards the fulfillment of our highest potential, and thus become our greatest teacher.

The other day someone I know left a note on our community WhatsApp. Their family member had just passed away at a young age. Many messages of condolences followed, and my eyes gradually swelled with tears.

I was always a sensitive person, crying at movies, taking to heart the terrible stories in history class. My heart would hurt after seeing news of someone dying, losing a child, or any of the other terrible sufferings of this world.

I am still the same way, except now I know it doesn’t have to be this way…

Not if we can listen to the messages of ancient wisdom.

Have you ever heard the story about the Buddha?

As a child, his father wanted to protect him from seeing the suffering of this world, like old age, illness, and death.

So he kept him locked up in his palace. But as the Buddha got older, he became curious about what is outside those walls, and finally he escaped.

To his astonishment he witnessed things he had never seen before, poor people, sick and old.

Horrified by what he discovered about the truth of the real world, he set out on his life long quest to find the cure to all suffering.

This tale is symbolic and it tells of a cure that I believe does exist within the ancient wisdoms.

It’s waiting for us to open up to it, to use it.

When I was studying Buddhism this cure of enlightenment always seemed very far and distant to me. It seemed like the privilege of the few holy ones who could achieve such a thing.

But my path led me to discover the ancient wisdom that is in my own heritage, and there the goal didn’t seem detached and far off- but immediately pressing, practical and imminent.

I learned that not only is spiritual enlightenment our very destiny, but that it is not far off at all, especially as our world enters this era we are now in.

It also helped me understand the cure to suffering I was seeking in a better way.

If you are curious about it, read on.

I learned that we are actually living in a non-material reality, a sea of light, or infinite possibility.

Around us is only love.

(can you imagine that?)

What we experience as our material reality is a construct of our own mind, a projection.

Like in the quantum mechanics “Double Slit Experiment“, we, the observer, determine the material reality which is actually a wave of possibilities.

So then, the reason that we see before us a reality that is full of pain, transience and suffering, is because of our internal attributes that limit our perception.

As sages of all ancient wisdoms teach us, we have to be the change we want to see in the world.

This means that when we can shift our inner qualities and perspectives, to become more and more like the light and love all around us, we begin to experience reality as it truly is: full of love and light.

This is our work.

We shouldn’t just accept that pain and endings are “just the way it is”, because it’s not.

We aren’t meant to live a short, painful life that has no meaning to it.

We are infinite beings, and we are meant to embody that expansiveness in our lives here and now (not after we die!).

That is the potential that we have, the opportunity we are given in every life time.

So when I hear about something very sad, I wish for this.
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I wish that wisdom spreads, and we become the enlightened beings we are meant to be- creating a world that is connected, conscious and aligned with the highest vibrations of love.
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A world in which darkness is transmuted into light, and we can experience soulful connection on a level where nothing and no one is ever gone or separate. We are always connected, beyond the physical.
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Some people call this moving from the 3rd to the 5th dimension.

I don’t call it that because again, it makes things feel mystical or far-fetched, when it isn’t. It’s the leap in consciousness that wants to take place in our times.
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Either that or we extinguish the planet’s resources or climate change or atomic war wipe us out…
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It’s really THAT dramatic.😬
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​But seriously, if those unthinkable negative things, tragically, seem more and more possible in our world, then shouldn’t we also accept that the unimaginable positive is possible too??

As ancient wisdom teaches, this fork in the road is simply evolution taking place. Just like when the dinosaurs became extinct to give rise to higher levels of life to emerge. This time it’s a higher level of human consciousness that wants to be born.

It’s either change comes through great suffering and then we change, or we change first.

It’s not mystical, it’s science we have yet to apply, one in which we ourselves, and our internal development are the object of research. Just as the ancient sages have done.

So those were my thoughts today 🙂 …and I will leave you with this, my friend.

Whenever you see suffering in the world, or your heart aches because of something sad you see/hear/feel…remember that we are all in this together. Remember that beyond this illusory material reality is a deeper truth that is love and light.

We can discover it. It’s calling us home.

Author: Tal Mandelbaum
Tal Mandelbaum is a trained social psychologist, a spiritual teacher, and a mom of two. She teaches online courses and workshops for spiritual seekers, who want to have a calmer, healthier more consciously connected relationship with themselves, others, and spirit! Follow her on Instagram for more spirituality insights and inspiration!