How suffering leads to you back to your Self
by Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering
Suffering comes from the egoic sense of self that perceives existence as something other than itself, and thus it may try to reconnect with what it perceives is a greater power. But this sense of self, the ego mind, does not recognize that it already is the Oneness. In actuality, there is no going here to there, or even having a soul. There is no separation; there is only a vast Oneness out of which everything seems to appear and disappear.
The limited mind
The egoic mind, being a product of consciousness that is fixated on things associated with the body, cannot know what lies prior to consciousness. Therefore, to fully grasp what this is, the mind must move out of the way: The attention must move from the objects of the mind to the source of consciousness. This is a matter of attention, not a method or a path, which is why Jiddu Krishnamurti used to say that Truth is a Pathless Land.
As a teacher, Krishnamurti tirelessly tried to find ways to get through to people, to have them look where he was pointing rather than admiring or adoring him. This is why he constantly repeated that he was not a guru. A guru must point one back to him or her self. A guru’s words are worthless unless they are tested through observation.
The egoic self is just a belief, a shadow
The egoic sense of self is no more than a belief that is created from an accretion of thoughts to which you cling. This can be observed when the mind becomes silenced. How do you silence it? Not by using the mind itself, but rather by turning the attention from the object to the subject — from what you are looking at to who is actually looking. Unless you do this then you continue to have the seeker and the seeking, the thinker and the thought, the seer and the seen.
If the mind tries to quell the mind, it is like a dog chasing its own tail.
Suffering comes from the mind, and it is not the right tool for silent observation; it is only a tool for knowing. But knowledge is from the past and this core of what you are is prior to time and space. This is why Krishnamurti continuously spoke about becoming free from the known.
