By what right do you suffer? You may say you were set up, and that suffering comes unbidden to you, yet I would like you to think anew. Do unwanted events occur? Yes. And yet, can you not be the willow that bends and not the unbending oak?

You perceive life as having to be a certain way. You perceive life as good or bad, right or wrong, beloveds. You judge life. Therefore, you propound suffering. For example, on one hand, you see that death of the body is inevitable. On the other hand, you hang on to bodies, yours and those of your loved ones, and yet the body is so little, and the soul so great.

Yes, on so many levels, judgment is a great burden.

When you consider something wrong, you are inconsolable. Many emotions come into play. Do you really want such a long list of emotions to choose from?

When you see something as objectionable, you naturally perceive that you must object. And what is objection but resistance? And where does resistance lead but to tension, and where does tension lead you to but more tension and suffering?

Compare this to a meal put in front of you. You may not like cooked carrots, for example, yet you don't have to protest them. And if they are on your plate, you don't even have to protest eating them. In life, too, it is not always possible to order off the menu.

Beloveds, everyone will have loved ones who leave their bodies. Someone will experience money in short supply. Someone will be talked to crossly. Someone will lose a diamond ring. Someone will crash his car. No one likes any of these. No one is overjoyed. But is it a requirement that you be miserable as well? Must you add suffering on top of what occurred? Must you tear yourself up?

Over very tiny things you often have suffered and made them big. There is heartache and heartache. When something greater in the sense of calamity happens, in contrast, you see how really little something was that you made yourself suffer over before. Sometimes, beloveds, you indulge yourself in suffering, as if suffering all by itself holds comfort for you. Will you consider that suffering is a side-line, and you don't really have to participate in it so much? Rally around joy more than you do suffering. Will you do that for me?

What good does suffering do you?

I do not say to pretend you are joyous when your heart is breaking. I am saying, must your heart hurt so much or hurt so often? Suffering is not meant to be a way of life. It is not to be your meat and potatoes. It is not a sign to be put up. It is not a medal to be pinned on you. You are not intended to have a cross to bear. You don't need it. I don't want you to have it. You are not meant to be burdened. You are meant to be unburdened. Unburden yourself, beloveds. Even when life is hard, must you also be hard on yourself?

If you cannot yet dispense with grief, can you not dispense with anger, guilt, envy, resentment and other sub-emotions that batter some of your days?

If you cannot yet dispense with grief, can you not yet find joy? Does the sun rise, and can you see it? Is there not still a sky and a horizon to look up at? And twinkling stars and a white moon? And is there not yet a God Who loves you with all His heart Whom you can love too?