Are My Thoughts the Cause of My Suffering?

In this discussion about the cause of suffering a questioner tries to make sense of an awakening experience that ended years of unhappiness, escapist behaviour, addiction and the need for psychiatric care. Do thoughts create suffering? And if the recognition of our true nature is not an experience why can the sense of joy, peace, calm, and being at home feel that way?

It's true that we try to escape the story of who we think we are but there's a lot more to experience than thinking and not all experience takes place through thinking. If you're suffering emotionally you have allowed yourself to become so mixed with the content of your experience that you believe I am this collection of thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving. You have forgotten or overlooked who you truly are.

Just like physical pain is an intelligent signal saying you need to attend to the body, suffering is an intelligent signal from the mind that reminds us that we have overlooked or forgotten who we truly are. Instead of trying to fulfil the suffering or avoid it through objects, substances, etc. we should take it as a signal to go back to ourselves, which is the source of peace.

This video is taken from one of Rupert's in-person retreats at Froyle Park 14-18 January, 2022. To view and book for upcoming retreats (many of which can be attended online via livestream) go to:

▸ UK https://rupertspira.com/event/locatio...
▸ US https://rupertspira.com/event/locatio...