opening to suffering

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Letting go of our suffering is the hardest work we will ever do.
It is also the most fruitful. To heal means to meet ourselves in a new way – 

in the newness of each moment where all is possible and nothing is limited

 to the old, our holding released, our grasping seen with little surprise or judgement.

 

 The vastness of our being meeting each moment wholeheartedly 

whether it holds pleasure or pain. Then the healing goes deeper 

than we ever imagined, deeper than we ever dreamed.

 

The teaching of opening mindfully, heartfully, to our deepest suffering

 is part of our essential healing. The deepening awareness brings attention

 to part of the mind that had lost heart, a hidden part of ourselves 

which felt disconnected from itself and all else. It allows access to what

 was closed off, to the pain that was so deep and had been pushed deeper yet

 with each moment of self negation and suppression.

 

 

 

 

 

~ Stephen Levine

from Healing into Life and Death

 art by Kan Srijira