Pain and Suffering
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This is an exceedingly painful time in my life and I was wondering how Thelema deals with suffering. I understand how Christians and Buddhists think/deal with pain, and how they "use" it, but how about thelemites? Any examples of real life situations on how Thelemic philosophy/techniques help one get through times of pain and suffering?
LLLL,
David -
pain and suffering is part of what makes you who you are, it is part of your WILL to suffer at times. If you denounce the suffering, then you denounce yourself, in some way, you wish that you were different. This is just a more personal example of the other world, you denounce this world self and desire to live in the other world where the self does not face suffering.
That being said it is best not to dwell in ones suffering either, that is not to prolong it, as conquering suffering is part of who you are too.
Liber AL says that sufferings are shadows that pass and are gone, but the good times are also brief moments of light that pass us by. The Thelemic answer is to not get to caught up in these flickering shadow shows of light and darkness. Transcend them, find out what is flickering, the medium that is now dark, now light. but in itself neither dark nor light.
Its like getting really into a movie or a novel, you may be so identified with the protagonist that you feel you are in the story, the fear, the sorrow and the joy of the character are your own, but then you snap out of the trance, the book slaps shut and there you are, unscathed by the events that happen in the story. Thus is the HGA your true self, unscathed by the events of your life.
"Thus the master though he laughed openly, he secretly wept, and in himself he neither laughed nor wept, nor had he meant what he had said"
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Quick quote from Crowley's Book of Thoth on the Moon Card:
"This path is guarded by Tabu. She is uncleanliness and sorcery. Upon the hills are the black towers of nameless mystery, of horror and of fear. All prejudice, all superstition, dead tradition - and ancestral loathing, all combine to darken her face before the eyes of men. It needs unconquerable courage to begin to tread this path. Here is a weird, deceptive life. The fiery sense is baulked. The moon has no air. The knight upon this quest has to rely on the three lower senses: touch, taste and smell. [See the Book of Lies Cap.pß, Bortsch.] Such light as there may be is deadlier than darkness, and the silence is wounded by the howling of wild beasts.
To what god shall we appeal for aid? It is Anubis, the watcher in the twilight, the god that stands upon the threshold, the jackal god of Khem, who stands in double form between the Ways. At his feet, on watch, wait the jackals themselves, to devour the carcasses of those who have not seen Him, or who have not known His Name.
This is the threshold of life; this is the threshold of death. All is doubtful, all is mysterious, all is intoxicating. Not the benign, solar intoxication of Dionysus, but the dreadful madness of pernicious drugs; this is a drunkenness of sense, after the mind has been abolished by the venom of this Moon. This is that which is written of Abraham in the Book of the Beginning: “An horror of great darkness came upon him.” One is reminded of the mental echo of subconscious realization, of that supreme iniquity which mystics have constantly celebrated in their accounts of the Dark Night of the Soul. But the best men, the true men, do not consider the matter in such terms at all. Whatever horrors may afflict the soul, whatever abominations may excite the loathing of the heart, whatever terrors may assail the mind, the answer is the same at every stage: “How splendid is the Adventure!” "
Course it's not always easy to buck up and take things as they come, especially when they dont' seem like an adventure.
A good Leary technique which I've used in the past for dealing with things at the moment they occur is to make a the ok sign with your hand, and look through the hole created by your thumb and pointer as if it were a camera lens and you were the director. I don't remember where I read this, but it's helped me to remove myself from the action for a breif respute from the actor role, and into the director seat. It's easy to flip your script from that chair.
Also look into NLP for some cool tricks. Like at night, picture what's bothering you. Then visualize it in black and white. Then speed it up so everything is in fast motion and people are all talking like chip and dale. then shrink it down really small and replace it with a large, color movie of something that makes you feel good, confident, etc.
Basically these are techniques to help you reprogram yourself out of where you are and into where you want to be. Changing the channel, so to speak.
I think AC probably has some good stuff on this as well, like the mediation on dying he gives in one of the liber... but I couldn't tell you exactly where. Dark Night of the Soul and he says how splendid is the adventure - he was definitly a tough S.O.B.
Good luck.
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93 David,
I'm sorry to hear that this time in your life is difficult, as Froclown pointed out, it can be helpful to remember that even dark times will pass. Sometimes it helps to compare what's going on now with other difficult times, and remember how those difficult times also passed, and how the many months or even years of suffering are in some way balanced by the joy and relief of the return to normalcy.
I don't know of any specific Thelemic texts that might help you; I expect everyone has different texts that resonate with them. All I can say is that one benefit I have gotten from Thelemic philosophy is a sense of freedom in dealing with suffering. When I suffer I don't feel guilty about suffering or the way that I suffer. I embrace it, I weep, I blow off work and go for long walks, I spend extra time meditating, I watch cartoons I used to enjoy as a kid, I listen to music and sing really loudly. It all sounds so trivial, but in times of great adversity a lot of time the small comforts are all we have left.
I think you have to be free to explore your own individual response to your suffering, and to not be afraid to embrace it, work through it, and then let it pass.
I hope this helps in some small way.
love=law
- C