The Nature of Suffering and the Evolution of the Soul

If there is any single cause for the degree of human suffering and misery witnessed on this planet, it would have to be our collective disconnection from the spiritual reality of our being. The disconnection that we experience makes us forget that we are pure spirit: eternal, unlimited, loving and infinitely creative. It is a sad truth that so many of us have forgotten that our essential nature is love. Instead, we have become over-identified with the limited physical body, mistakenly believing that we are nothing more than our body and our personality. When we come to see ourselves as nothing more than our bodies, we lean to be afraid: afraid of threats to our physical safety and survival, afraid of loss of status or material possessions and, most of all, afraid of dying. These fears can be minimized through connection with a higher spiritual perspective; however, if we cannot see, hear or feel Spirit, then these fears become very real for us, causing us to lose our direction in life. When we start to remember who we really are, we come to realize that we are powerful creators. We come to realize that there is no absolute death, no lasting lack, no permanent loss and that the underlying reality of the universe is benevolence and love. We understand that we ourselves, and everyone around us, is on the same journey, the journey back to the Source. As we progress on our path of spiritual development, we learn how we can use our consciousness to create a positive, vibrant, uplifting and miraculous reality in which to live. We come to realize that at its core, all negativity is self-imposed, and that we have the power to heal ourselves of all false beliefs, all ideas that are not truly of the Light and all energetic patterns that hold us back from coming into our true greatness. This remembrance of our true selves allows us to view ourselves and the world around us through the eyes of our soul. We can then better understand and appreciate the particular lessons we have come here to learn and the unique gifts that we have brought with us to share in the spirit of service. We begin to remember that we have the power to respond to circumstances from a place of wisdom and spiritual power. We stop being afraid because we know that our Creator and the power of our soul will help us deal with any challenge that comes our way. The power of finding our spiritual connection while in physical form is that we need not wait until we get to the “other side” to decide that love really is the answer—instead, we can choose to live our lives from the higher perspective of the soul right here and right now.