The Self That Suffers Can Never Be Found

In this meditation, Rupert begins by clarifying the difference between pain and suffering. Pain, such as a headache, is physical resistance to the current situation, arising on behalf of the safety of the body. Suffering, such as depression or anxiety, is emotional or psychological resistance that arises on behalf of an illusory separate self. Physical pain always involves a sensation; suffering always involves thinking and a sense of self. In the non-dual tradition, there are two approaches to suffering. In the first, we turn towards the self on whose behalf our suffering arises; in the second, we turn towards the feeling itself. When we try to find the self on whose behalf an emotion arises, we encounter thoughts, images, memories, feelings, sensations and perceptions, but do we ever encounter a self? When we look for that self, we never find it. Where we thought we would find a suffering self, we find the inherently peaceful, unconditionally fulfilled nature of our real self, and with it relief from our suffering.

In this meditation, Rupert begins by clarifying the difference between pain and suffering. Pain, such as a headache, is physical resistance to the current situation, arising on behalf of the safety of the body. Suffering, such as depression or anxiety, is emotional or psychological resistance that arises on behalf of an illusory separate self. Physical pain always involves a sensation; suffering always involves thinking and a sense of self. In the non-dual tradition, there are two approaches to suffering. In the first, we turn towards the self on whose behalf our suffering arises; in the second, we turn towards the feeling itself. When we try to find the self on whose behalf an emotion arises, we encounter thoughts, images, memories, feelings, sensations and perceptions, but do we ever encounter a self? When we look for that self, we never find it. Where we thought we would find a suffering self, we find the inherently peaceful, unconditionally fulfilled nature of our real self, and with it relief from our suffering.