AH Guest Writer : What Do You Mean When You Use The Word “God”? – Part 3

 

(Why Is There So much Suffering?)

Beverly Nadler, CH, CMT ©2013

In Part 1, we explored the concept of “God” being both transcendent and immanent, and we looked the relationship between God and energy.

Part 2 was about our multi-dimensional Universe and ourselves as multi-dimensional beings. Also, we looked at how the energy operates in our lives, through the Universal Laws.

Now, in Part 3, we will explore the subject that so greatly disturbed Siddhartha Gautama, a 6th century BC Indian Prince. When he went outside his protected Palace grounds and saw the sickness, poverty and suffering in the land, he was so disturbed that he left his home and family to discover “why” there was so much suffering. He got his answer…and a great deal more. As a result, a huge global religion was established and the Prince became known as “the Buddha,” meaning “The Awakened One.” (“Awake,” has the same meaning as enlightened and Self-Realized, a subject that will be covered in Part 4.)

This article is not so much about suffering, as it is about adversity, because it is our concept about, and relationship to, adversity that leads to suffering. People can’t understand why God created a world in which there is so much pain, struggle, traumas and crises – especially since God is all “good.” Hopefully, you will consider what you read in this article worthy of your contemplation, and it will lead to insights for you.

Everything Is The Way It Is Supposed to Be

The Bible clearly states the following in several different passages: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, do all these things.” This is from Isaiah 45:7. In other passages, God (who in this passage calls himself “Lord”) also said, “It is all good.”

This only makes sense when you interpret “It is all good” to mean “It is all as I (“I” meaning God) intend it to be.

If there is a Creator — and if you are reading this, I imagine you have no doubt that there IS — then it makes sense that the Creator of this and all Universes would have also created a system by which everything operates. This system is based on the laws of energy and physics. These Universal Laws are described on this website and in my books, “Vibrational Harmony – the Real Secret of Success Health and Happiness” and “Loving the Game of Life – Discovering Who You Are and Why You Are Here.” They are also referenced in Part 2 of this article.

Quantum physicist, David Bohm, said that there is an implicate order and Divine perfection to the Universe. (Implicate means it enfolds upon itself and exists below the level of our awareness.) Other quantum physicists agree. While life on planet earth may “appear” to be filled with random events, it is actually operating according to exact law.

The Laws of Polarity and Rhythm

Much frustration and distress is caused by the operation of “The Law of Polarity,” and to a lesser degree, “the Law of Rhythm.” We want to believe that adversity and negativity (meaning whatever we don’t like) can be avoided, as some teachers say, or, as others say, doesn’t really “exist.”

In the beginning of Part 2, I presented a scenario of what occurs in our world (a scenario that no one can deny) and I also said that by LAW our human experience must include both good AND bad, positive AND negative, health AND disease, prosperity AND poverty, pleasure AND pain, love AND hate, peace AND war…and all the other opposites.

The opposites may appear at the same time in one experience or event, or in a person. Sometimes they come as a result of the Law of Rhythm – the fluctuating cycles that are a natural part of life. Thus, business and finances are good, and then they’re not so good. The real estate market is favorable to sellers and then to buyers. Our emotional state changes from happy to sad, at times for no specific reason that we’re aware of. (Fortunately, it can also change from sad to happy.)

Though the opposites above are troubling to us, we have no problem with yin and yang, male and female, big and little, up and down, near and far, high and low, inside and outside, cold and hot, etc.

The Blessings Of Adversity

Before I tell you the blessings, I will tell you the main problem — the mistaken belief that adversity “should not” exist, and the belief that if adversity comes into your life there is something “wrong” with you, or God doesn’t love you, or you didn’t follow personal and spiritual growth teachings properly. These beliefs make many people unnecessarily miserable. Even worse, resistance to adversity makes their situation worse.

I also learned something else from working with myself (actually, “on” myself – that is, on my Consciousness) and with hundreds of clients: Many people who are spiritually-awakening (as differentiated from religious people) not only think adversity shouldn’t exist, they are secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) angry and resentful at God for “allowing” adversity.

Adversity is a natural part of life in the 3rd dimension and no one, no matter how rich, successful, beautiful or brilliant can escape from it. Sometimes, the only way God (or the Universe) can get our attention is through a calamity. As American writer, Edgar Watson Howe said so succinctly, “A good scare to a man is worth more than good advice.”

Often our adversities lead us to turn inward, and we emerge stronger for the experience. People who might have remained “ordinary” become extraordinary because of their determination to overcome their adversities.

Thomas Edison was a poor writer and couldn’t read until he was 12 years old, yet his many inventions make our lives easier and far more pleasant. Woodrow Wilson, a highly regarded American president, was severely dyslexic. Franklin D. Roosevelt, stricken with polio at the age of 39, served four terms as President of the US while crippled and in a wheel chair. Helen Keller, deaf, mute and blind since infancy, and the first deaf-blind person to graduate from college, became a celebrated author and activist. Ludwig van Beethoven created his greatest classical musical compositions after he became deaf. John Milton, English author/poet, became blind at age 43, and went on to write his most famous epic, “Paradise Lost.” These are only a few examples. Many more are in my book “Loving the Game of Life.”

A beautiful thing that happens because of adversity is this: People across the globe bond together to help total strangers who have been stricken by disasters and catastrophes. At these times, we open our hearts, aware at some level, that “we are all one.” Alas, we soon forget, until the next tragedy.

Actually, when I think about our human experience on planet earth I wonder what made us believe we shouldn’t have adversity or why we think it’s “unfair.” I love this anonymous quote: “Life is not fair, but life is not fair for everyone. That makes life fair.” In sports and the games we play we expect and enjoy challenges and adversity. Think mountain climbing and the adversity and challenges of the mountain and nature. Think chess and the mental challenge. Think football and the adversity of the opposing team. We consider all of these to be “fun.” Why, then, do we think the “game of life” should be free of challenge and adversity?

What Others Say About Adversity

Below are a few quotes from philosophers, mystics, psychiatrists, and authors.

“Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.” Horace, Ancient Roman poet and philosopher

“A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.” English Proverb
“To round itself out, life calls not for perfection, but for completeness; and for this the “thorn in the flesh” is needed, the suffering of defects without which there is no progress and no ascent.” Dr. Carl G. Jung, Swiss psychiatrist.

“God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.” Rumi, 13th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic.

“Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. This happens to break you down and guild you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.” Charles “Tremendous” Jones, American author, motivational and inspirational speaker.

“Once we truly know that life is difficult–once we truly understand and accept it–then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” Dr. M. Scott Peck, psychiatrist and author.

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.” Helen Keller, deaf, mute and blind activist, author, and lecturer.

You can reflect upon and feel the truth of these wise words, or you can continue to resist. I refused to believe that adversity is an unavoidable fact of life for years. When I finally accepted it, I also saw the truth of the quote below by Holocaust survivor, Dr. Viktor E. Frankl, the neurologist and psychiatrist who developed “Logotherapy. At the time of his death in 1997 (at the age of 92), his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” had sold over 10 million copies and helped and inspired people all over the world.

“Man is not fully conditioned and determined, but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.”

Dr. Frankl also said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”



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