All suffering is the manifestation of a global field of dark and powerfully negative mind-force that is inextricably interwoven with the history of this planet. It arose out of a mistake of cosmic proportions. No-one knows the details of this cosmic error, but suffice it to say that its spiritual origin lies in our divine birthright of free will. It is not God’s will that we suffer, but it is His will that we be free to choose between His will and our own. We were not created to be slaves to the Divine Will. Our freedom lies in our inalienable right to choose between God and Ego. We can choose to be ‘instruments’ of Divine Will, or we can oppose that Will and seek self-fulfillment elsewhere. The error is not in the exercising of free choice; it is in the lack of awareness regarding the repercussions of our freedom to oppose the will of God.
While none of us can claim to know the will of God, we may infer that it involves peace, joy, self-fulfillment and the best of circumstances for each and every one of us. God is Love, and these are the things that Love wishes for its loved ones. Yet it is self-evident that life in this world is anything but peaceful, fulfilling, or circumstantially ideal for vast majority of God’s creatures.
Why? What went wrong?
Perhaps the initial mistakes were so subtle, so small and insidious, that they were hardly noticeable. We may never know why we evolved as we did – why we are so vulnerable, biologically, to the forces of nature – why the natural world should seem to be so hostile to our survival. This world is all we know and it is in this world that we must live and find our purpose. What may or may not be beyond this world is a matter of belief, conjecture or speculation, so it is here, in this world, that we must find our answers; and our own human logic tells us that things are not as they could or should be. Not only do we have to contend with the forces of nature, we have to endure the evils perpetrated throughout history by Man himself. We have compounded the errors that lead to suffering largely through our selfish, egocentric attempts to avoid suffering.
Throughout history we have chosen to inflict suffering upon others in our desperate attempts to avoid suffering ourselves. To become rich we believed we had to make the majority poor. To possess power for ourselves we believed we had to take power away from others. To gratify our lust for pleasure we indulged in activities that eventually brought us pain. Our intentions may even have been good, but our modus operandi left a lot to be desired.
Can we stem this ever-growing tide of global negativity and spiritual darkness? Can we transmute our personal suffering into spiritual selflessness and moral strength?
Perhaps this is the challenge that all of us must choose to accept. To the extent that we succeed in transmuting our own ‘negatives’ into ‘positives,’ to that extent will we be doing our share towards neutralizing the miasma of accumulated evil that presently bedevils our planet.
About the Author:
Alan Solomon: born in Johannesburg, South Africa, July 8th 1938. Currently living in Pasadena California.
Alan Solomon is one of South Africa’s foremost violinists, composers and music educators. Having enjoyed a successful career as soloist, conductor and professor of violin and viola at the university of Pretoria, he retired in 1999 to Long Island NY where, for ten years, he taught violin to children of school-going age at the North Shore Suzuki School.
In 2009 he moved to Pasadena CA where he continues to teach theory and music history to his daughter’s cello pupils. He also trains and conducts a cello ensemble comprised of her more advanced students. The rest of his time is spent reading and writing metaphysical articles, contemplating life’s mysteries, and happily playing with his grandchildren.
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