Suffering

One of John's insights of the last 4 years is that Buddha's identification of suffering as man's great problem is incorrect. Instead man's big problem is disconnexion – or what he used to call selfishness. Suffering is not bad per se and in fact it can be greatly beneficial because it can dispel the veil of comfort preventing real connexion. “Not comfort / but vision.” One of the great difficulties I have as a teacher is convincing students that the reality of heart and energy firstly exists and secondly is worth devoting a life to. The only students I can really talk to are the ones who already suspect the truth of heart or already know it for sure, and what all these people have in common is that they have suffered, often quite severely. Those that haven't suffered are so sure and confident in their existence that there is no real communication possible, not on an energy level anyway – they just don't want to know and very quickly go their own way. Of course there are people who have been driven even more deeply into their shell by their suffering, but as long as they have the humility to stick around they eventually start peeping out and then miracles are possible.