To attain inner peace, begin by gaining an understanding of what causes suffering

Alleviate Suffering in your life, starting today!

Most people are not happy. Throughout the day, the average person is not satisfied, relaxed, appreciative, accepting, joyful or inspired. Rather, the average person experiences a range of emotions such as anger, boredom, envy, anxiety, fear, guilt, regret, jealousy, rejection, judgment, failure, and loneliness.

People around you may seem happy – they may smile and laugh a lot. But this is usually a mask of what is truly occurring deep inside of them. If you know what questions to ask, you can usually get someone to reveal to you what is really occurring; and it’s usually different from what they are projecting on a surface level.

To understand how to rise above suffering, it’s important to first understand what causes it in the first place. Philosophers have been contemplating this for thousands of years.

One of the timeless models for understanding suffering has to do with how people perceive reality. In this model, rather than the events and circumstances in our lives determining what we feel, our perception is what determines whether we suffer or experience peacefulness.

“… for there is nothing either good or
bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.”

Hamlet Act 2, scene 2

It’s not the actions of your lover or your boss that make you angry; it’s how you perceive the actions of your lover or your boss that make you angry. So circumstances and events don’t make you suffer; rather suffering is caused by how you perceive the circumstances and events in your life.

So if this is true, where do these suffering-inducing perceptions about life originate? Many great thinkers throughout time have speculated our ideas and opinions (which are the root of our suffering) come from our parents, our cultures, our religions, our educations, our social groups, our peers, our employers, and many of them we even create ourselves.

So in a sense, we are programmed in a way that leads us to suffer unnecessarily.

If you don’t think you are affected by programming from your culture, parents, etc, see this entertaining video. It might just change your mind:

To acknowledge that our suffering is caused by our own perception of reality, and not reality itself, is a great responsibility, a responsibility that most people will refuse to take. But if we grasp that we are causing our own suffering, we also gain the power to be able to change. We aren’t just victims of circumstances; we are the deciders of our own fate.

Rise Above Suffering And See Things For What They Truly Are

There are many paths to achieving inner peace. One approach is to make a conscious effort to observe your perception (ideas, programming, opinions, thinking, etc) as a hunter who is stalking his prey.

Rather than being the prey, you are observing it from a distance. As you do this throughout the day, contemplate the original source of your perceptions. Did they originate from your parents, your culture, your religion, a negative life altering experience?

By merely observing this process, by stepping outside of it, many people have transformed to a higher state of awareness, a state of understanding and joy, a state beyond suffering.

Of course, as you do this, it’s important to realize that not all of your programmed, conditioned responses are unneeded. Some of them are necessary to function in your day to day life (look before crossing the street, etc). But by paying attention to your inner working from this higher level of awareness, you gain the choice to determine what perceptions you need and what you don’t need.

One of my favorite books about reaching this higher level of personal awareness is Freedom from the Known, by Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Even as you become more aware of how your inner workings are causing you to suffer, it can still be challenging to let go of unnecessary programming and conditioning. Our Life Mastery Program is abundant with methods that will make this process easier for you. The course information is a result of years of research into the root of suffering, and how to rise above it.

Whatever you do, I encourage you to consider how your perception is causing any pain you are experiencing in your life. This is the first step towards gaining a greater inner freedom, a freedom which sadly, most people never achieve.