The Healing Wisdom Behind Suffering
from Dr. Joseph Michael Levry

Dear beloved members of our worldwide community,
It is with Love and blessings that I send this healing communication to you, so that it may bring Light to your mind, warmth to your heart and strength to your Spirit. I encourage you to read it more than once in order to receive the soothing Light and wisdom embedded within its words. To those that have expressed the desire to understand the true meaning of suffering, you will find within these words the spiritual nourishment needed to rise above times of trial and tribulation, suffering or health challenges. There is no love without sacrifice and no sacrifice without love. We must always keep in mind that the beauty and brightness of Gold is known by the fire it goes through.  
 

A gem cannot be polished without friction. Similarly, a man or woman cannot be perfected without trials. Understand that challenges do not come to small people, only to those capable of greatness. Those who face great challenges in this life are disciples of the great school of Light, placed to walk the path of Masters. In order for you to truly walk this path and speak this language, however, you must transform your consciousness so that your mind, heart and willpower become one with your soul. A happy life lies not in the absence of hardships, but in their mastery. Suffering comes according to the degree of development. When you come to pass through the trials of Christ, you attain a new concept of Life. In other words, the path of suffering helps us develop the Divine survival. Our challenges, then, are blessings in disguise because they provide the necessary conditions for evolution. This process is akin to pregnancy and birth. If a mother did not go through the pains of labor, she would not have the blessing of a child.

Destiny, or Providence, has determined the tests through which each human life has to pass. Those tests are necessary, for Man falls in order to rise again. The true test is not whether you fall, but whether you get up, renewed and ready to move forward without looking back. How we face the series of trials that life presents becomes the basis of our character, the most valuable quality of our soul. Accept the challenges given by God’s hand with grace. Understand that the fire of struggle is there to purify us, and in the university of life we are only given those problems that we are able to resolve. As the saying goes, God only gives you what you can handle.

In Nature, one great Law rules: human souls develop through suffering, and through it, learn the great mysteries of life. Suffering is a process of stripping away layer after layer of all that is false. It is through suffering that we gradually make the changes necessary and begin to lead a pure and holy life. When we transform sorrow into virtue, we become humble, tender and virtuous. We are then able to see God and comprehend His Greatness, and understand that we are all wanderers who have come to Earth to learn. In other words, every suffering is an open door through which one comes to know God. Without such sorrows, humankind would not be able to draw closer to God. This is the path on Earth. The Angels draw close to God through Joy. It is in passing through two conditions: the greatest sorrow and the greatest joy that you come to understand the true inner meaning of Life and the bliss where all things are harmonious. This cannot be explained in the human language.

Do not regard sufferings as misfortunes, but as blessings. The events and circumstances we attract are a reflection of our own state of being. All suffering, in any form, is an attempt to break down old structures that are not based on love, wisdom and truth. Every challenge, tragedy, betrayal, insult and injury we face comes to us as a teacher to expand our consciousness and a vehicle to lead us to inner clarity and self-healing. In short, the answers we seek are contained within the situations we attract. The key is to expand our perception so as to understand the wisdom embedded in the problem. We must embrace our challenges as a way for the Universe to remove the negative energies from the Body of Pain causing stagnation, so that our lives may move forward in the right direction.

Problems, suffering, and disease are a way for the negative patterns of thinking, feeling, speaking, acting and behaving to be stripped away so that we are no longer in contradiction with the cosmic principles of love, wisdom and truth. This is how we realize our highest potential. All of the challenges we face are caused by the karma we owe. In other words, every suffering is an expression of karmic spiritual-suffering-healing. Each of us has millions of lifetimes that created karmic imprints. The only pathway out of fulfilling our karma is by raising our consciousness. Once we have accomplished this, and the lessons have been learned, the suffering stops.

What is karma? Karma is the universal force of self-correction. When an event occurs that seems challenging, it is wise to ask, “What is the gift or the lesson this suffering or disease has to give me?” In this question lies the answer to healing our karma through acts of goodness. These daily acts of kindness, goodness, vibrating Naam and serving others, increase the white light around us and diminish the black light of karma that brings suffering and disease. The act of removing karma is a slow, multi-layered process, however. Therefore, karma should be gradually cleaned out from the internal body. This can be uncomfortable, but is entirely necessary. So, take the challenges, and sufferings in your everyday life and ask yourself what they mean. What do you not wish to see and not wish to change? If you face this, and truly wish to face the real issue and make the necessary change, the crisis will have fulfilled its function.

Nothing in the universe happens by chance. There are always universal forces, under the guidance of higher intelligences, leading us to higher consciousness, expanded perception and clarity, so that we may make better decisions for the good of the entire universe. Remember, we are brought to love, wisdom, truth and understanding, complaining and resisting all the way. Lets keep in mind that any challenge we experience becomes as painful as the level of our resistance to change. When healthy change is not willingly accepted, we thrust ourselves into a state of crisis. Understand, the intensity of any crisis always indicates the level of opposition, as well as the urgency of the need for change. We must approach all challenges with openness as a necessary step on our evolutionary path of change.

Keep in mind that on the path to emotional and spiritual fulfillment, it is essential to free yourself from the negative ways of thinking, feeling, speaking, acting, and behaving coming from our Body of Pain. Sometimes our misconceptions create behavior patterns that inevitably seem to prove the correctness of our wrong assumption coming from a poor perception, so that the destructive, defensive behavior becomes more firmly entrenched in the Body of Pain. Every situation or challenge has an energy that represents the truth hidden in the actual event we are facing. This cannot always be understood by the five senses or our usual logical way of thinking. In order to capture the truth contained in any situation, we must cultivate our intuitional logic. Informed intuition means an inner knowing working in conjunction with our energetic cosmic map, Naam and the various cycles of nature that are taught in Universal Kabbalah. When we operate from this place, no relevant information of any source is excluded. Decision and action deriving from such a state of awareness embodies both wisdom and practicality.

When we are in harmony with the flow of the universe, we constantly grow and experience life in a deeply satisfying way. When we do not resist change, our lives are relatively free from challenges and sufferings. Problem, suffering, and disease can be avoided when we honestly look at the inner truth as soon as the first inklings of disturbance and negativity manifest on the surface. This takes a tremendous amount of honesty and integrity, for when you do this you are challenging your tightly treasured convictions. However, being truthful with self must become predominant in the personality. Learn to honestly explore the deepest meaning of even the smallest challenges in your life, for as you develop the capacity to look honestly at what disturbs you, you align yourself with the ability to experience healing change.

In the mysterious Kabbalistic Tree of Life, there are two pillars that symbolize Mercy and Severity. King Solomon’s Temple also bears two columns that symbolize the obelisks before the sanctuaries of Ancient Egypt. They also stand for the two hemisphere of the brain. When these two hemispheres come into balance, the pineal and pituitary come into play to form what is referred to by yogis and mystics as the third eye. Ultimately, these two columns express something fundamental to the Universe, and are there to challenge our right to the great wisdom that lies within the Temple of Mysteries beyond them. The right pillar has been called Jachin and is significantly denoted in Universal Kabbalah by the color red, the color of blood. The name Jachin has been said to mean “establishment”. The pillar on our left has been called Boaz. Its color is black, the color of strength and force. Interpreted Kabbalistically, the names of the two pillars means, “In strength shall my house be established”. Together, Jachin and Boaz express the opposite polarities that exist in nature. These forces must be held in balance, or they would reduce everything to chaos. In fact, the trials and sufferings we are confronted with are all due to the outpourings of force from the Pillar of Establishment and the Pillar of Strength. A third pillar stands midway between Jachin and Boaz. This middle pillar represents the glorified wise man or woman. He/she has reached his/her high estate through suffering, symbolized by the cross that is made by joining the two other pillars together. The third pillar, then, is the equilibrating condition wherein the conflicts and oppositions of life may be reconciled by harmony.

Life is not meant to be easy. Sorrow must be borne and not chased away. Suffering is most often the consequence of a mistake, and occurs as a way to rectify the mistake. It is in the process of rectifying our mistakes that we learn our lessons, adapt and move on, ultimately making bad thoughts servants of good thoughts, bad feelings servants of good feelings, and bad deeds servants of good deeds. Don’t complain about this process. Rather, look upon it as an opportunity for rebirth. The challenges you are facing now are meant for you to repay the debts you owe. Karma creates suffering, and this is part of the difficult process of working on yourself. If we did not forget God in prosperity, adversity would never come near us. Naam Yoga will help you solve all your past karma. Indeed, The energy emitted by Naam dissolves evil. Your past karma will be repaid through the blessing of Naam. Don't tell God how big your storm is, tell the storm how big your God is.

Although suffering is an inescapable part of higher spiritual development, suffering is not an end in and of itself. Nor is it the only means of reaching God. Such teaching is a misrepresentation of mystical truth. Indeed, the path of asceticism ends only in dryness of heart and body. As Universal Kabbalists, when we are faced with hardships our goal is to look to the future with faith, calm and patience. We never lose heart. As soon as the storm of suffering has passed, and we have survived, we are able to understand its meaning and/or submerge our sensory temptations as needed. Ultimately, you must remember that while your hardships may make you feel meaningless, you are important in the eyes of God, the Creator, the One who brought you to this Earth. When God gives you a good time he wants you to forget it and sleep peacefully. When he gives you a bad time he wants you to wake up and face it.

Gold is known by the fire it goes through. Again the challenges in your life are a blessing for you. The greatest blessing for those who are on the golden path to become masters is to go through the fire, by facing challenges and great difficulties. Through the fire you will know the language of Light. This is only true, however, for those who experience a transformation of consciousness so that the mind, heart and will can all become part of the soul. Free yourself of the illusion that without suffering you can gain something. Gain is always conditioned by loss; joy is always balanced by suffering. Accept the challenges given by God’s hand, and use them as the building blocks of your character. Understand that they are the connecting threads between you and God that allow you to go from one world into the next, better world. Where there is death, there is also resurrection. He/she who does not wish to participate in the sufferings of humanity, will not acquire anything.

Invoke the courage to embrace the Light and fight internal and external battles, and do not trouble yourself with what others think of you. God, who is responsible for you being on Earth continuously thinks of, and values, you. Therefore, the most important thing for you is to have the approval of God during your suffering. During suffering, what we must think to ourselves is: God forgive me for I caused you so many sufferings with impure thoughts and actions. In so doing, we will arrive at that true path which will save us from the evil of our day. Once you decide to serve God, you will no longer worry, because you know that while all manner of misfortune may befall you, at the end of the day a miracle will be revealed. Remember, Christ was not afraid to go through the crucifixion, because he knew that he would come to the resurrection. He bore the humiliation and pain of the cross with the greatest humbleness and Love. And punishment is used, as far as it is imposed by Love, to root out the bad. Indeed, only Love can bring noble elements into the human soul. And, at His last moment, He sighed deeply and proclaimed, "Father, into Your hands I entrust my Spirit. Let it be according to Your will." (Luke 23:46) Christ suffered the worst violations on the cross, for which He was resurrected and elevated. He was given all the power on Earth and in Heaven.

When we are faced with difficulties as we embark on the spiritual path of Light, we must remember Christ’s example and strive to follow in His footsteps. In so doing, we will rise victoriously to become a servant of the Heavens, of God and of the Light. Indeed, as soon as we become a servant of the higher forces, we are tested by the Earth. When you decide to live for God and serve others, violations, mockeries, gossip, criticism and betrayals will come. Make yourself ready to meet these trials in the Name of God, so as to rise from the dead. When you are crucified, just say, "Father, if you wish, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, let not my will, but Your Will be done." (Luke, 22:42) Resurrection is not possible without suffering. Christ went through suffering, therefore, all servants of the Universe on the spiritual path of Light will also go through suffering. Just keep in mind that God is Love and there is no love without sacrifice and no sacrifice without love. When we are challenged, we are not alone. Just as the mother suffers when her children suffer, God suffers when we suffer, and is there to pick us up. There is both avoidable and unavoidable suffering. Some events can be avoided, but there are things that cannot be escaped. Rest assured, however, there will be a time when all suffering and pains will disappear. Apostle Paul said, "Today's sufferings cannot be compared to the future glory of those who love God."

The key to developing a capacity to deeply understand our own crises and what they are here to teach us is Divine help in the form of Divine Spiritual Wisdom, Naam and Harmonyum, and a deep willingness to let go. You need Divine help in the form of Naam and mystical prayer to the inner most Divine functioning within your soul. This will make real, lasting change possible. Believe in the power of the Divine Intelligence dwelling within you and make up your mind to confront and go through your darkness. Believe in your own capacity to actualize the infinite powers of the Universal Spirit. This will unleash your highest potential and release your unlimited strength. Indeed, when you decide to go through your personal crisis and ask for help in Naam meditation, the resources you need to overcome your challenges will become available. As a result, you will sense an awakened trust that lets you know you do not have to live through your Body of Pain. Your innermost being, your whole soul, with all its psychic forces, will lead you to love, wisdom, truth, self-expression and light.

As we move through time and space, and are faced with challenges, we should use wisdom and love to guide us. Indeed, we must learn to work according to the laws of wisdom and love. Wisdom is expressed through our intellect and Spirit; love through our heart and soul. Wisdom and love can also be compared to the hands of a clock: wisdom is the little hand that marks the hours, and love is the big hand that shows the minutes. Wisdom and love must work in unison. Thanks to wisdom, we choose a direction that’s valid for all time. In order to fulfill the direction, however, we must adopt the ways of love. Wisdom shows us the direction to take, and the heart keeps us moving. Love must always seek wisdom as the center point, so as not to dissipate. Wisdom must surround itself with love, otherwise it will remain alone like a king without a kingdom. We must live each minute with joy and enthusiasm, and without ever losing our impetus. In this way we can reconcile our direction for the day with the direction for eternity. Divine Spiritual Wisdom is the path of great Divine beings. It bestows the Great laws of the Cosmos. Divine Spiritual Wisdom is validated in the higher world.
 

With Love, Peace and Light,
The Rootlight Team