Tomorrow at 10am US CT / 5pm CET I'm hosting a free digital Ayahuasca / Bufo alvarius ceremonial exploration called GOD'S LOVE, which will involve an Ayahuasca & Bufo-inspired sound healing + breathwork journey, as well as me presenting some ideas and insights about these medicines. Sign up free here.
The following piece came through me a few weeks ago. I feel it’s worth sharing. <3
Why do we wish for no pain?
Why do we wish for all suffering to be eliminated from human existence?
Some people describe awakening as the end of all human pain.
In my experience and observation, that’s not accurate.
I’m open to the idea that it’s possible to transcend all human pain…
But that seems out of reach for the vast majority in this lifetime.
Many masters I’ve encountered via words or in person have acknowledged that pain continues after self-realization.
Yes, it can lighten dramatically, and the experience of it can shift substantially. It gets easier to experience it as simply a mysterious energetic texture pouring through the openness of awareness…
But it seems that it continues in some form for virtually all humans who taste enlightenment—including those who reach ‘abiding non-dual awareness’ and beyond.
You still have to “chop wood and carry water,” and sometimes it ain’t all peach candy and sunbeams.
What if this is okay?
Many will not like to hear what I’ve just shared.
It cuts against many of our New Age fantasies of perpetual bliss.
But…
What if it’s okay?
What if God knows better?
Personally, I feel that to give up all our pain, would be to give up a great gift.
Human life is hard and painful at times…
And this is part of what is so beautiful about it.
The pain ages us like a fine cheese, or an old barrel of whiskey.
It is the spice and flame that renders the bubbling curry of our being-ness truly rich, with such depth of flavor.
Why do we want to eliminate this pain from existence?
It allows us to resonate and relate more deeply with one another.
It cracks our hearts open to love, to ever more subtle and sensitive degrees.
Clearly, the mysterious Tao ‘believes’ it is best for it to be here…
You can know this because it *is* here.
Why do we want to push all the pain out of existence?
We have an entire eternity to rest in painless peace.
Our changeless essence is painless peace.
It is that. It will always be that.
Why are we so eager to return to that eternity of painless peace?
“Everybody wanna be God—besides God. He wanna be like us.”
— Mac Miller, Inside Outside
Why do we insist that Earth would be better if we were all feeling painless peace all the time?
"Do you want to improve the world?
I don't think it can be done.The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it."— Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
You will have your eternity of peace…
On one level, you already do…
You have it and it cannot be taken from you…
But for now, you are also human.
While you are human, perhaps consider “taking the curriculum,” as a channeled entity once told Ram Dass.
Clearly, a major part of this earthly curriculum is pain.
Learning the lessons that pain teaches…
Learning to bear our pain with honor and grace…
Learning to walk into the fire like a warrior, in trust of however it may wish to re-forge us…
I’m Not Great At This
I suck at this a lot of the time.
I wonder why the pain has to be there. I try to escape it, or distract myself from it, or intoxicate myself out of it, or enlighten myself out of it.
I’m not so good at simply sitting with it, letting it be there.
I keep practicing, though, and I get better over time, inch by inch.
Today, there is some pain in my system.
There is that familiar tightness in my chest that has been with me so often these past years.
There is the dull ache in my shoulders and neck—this has also been a long-time companion.
There is some tension in my jaw.
There is a bit of frazzled, unsettled, mildly anxious energy.
There is some tiredness from a mediocre night of sleep.
And it’s okay.
When I actually let it just be for a moment…
I can feel its medicinal quality.
I can feel it humbling me, grounding me, deepening me, inviting me to practice self-care, opening me further into compassion and love.
It feels tender and vulnerable.
It feels like 31.3 dense years in this soft animal body.
31.3 years = 11,438 days = 274,512 hours = 16,470,720 minutes = 988,243,200 seconds in this soft animal body.
It feels like a secret confession from God, in a foreign language.
It feels intimate.
It feels human.
It feels like life.
Why do we wish for no pain?
A Fellow Sufferer,
Jordan
P.S. Early bird registration for Presence of God ends tomorrow. If you apply by tomorrow sometime, I’ll consider you eligible for the early bird ($333 off). The retreat is also almost full—about ~1-2 spaces left, with several people who’ve expressed strong interest and are still deciding. If you’re meant to join us, the time is now to leap: