Comment at bottom: **
--- In [email protected], "claudiouk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > "Ignorance is only apparent, it isn't real" - I know, fundamentally > and philosophically this is supposed to be so and yes one can > appreciate the "cleverness" in that magical trick - it's only a rope > that appears like a snake etc; but experientially suffering is real > enough. The deception then becomes not playful but unimaginably > cruel. And there is just smugness in the philosophy, no real > compassion, unfortunately. It's voyeurism on the part of the Self - > witnessing like in a peep show, at safe distance, whilst the whole of > creation is left languishing in despair.. > **snip to end** It's not the cleverness of the philosophy that removes the sting of suffering but the realization that you can truly remove your attention from the suffering. And that's done just by putting attention on attention. Think of all the surgeries that take place while the patients' attention is removed from the physical plane. It would all be the most hideous of torture except that the patient isn't allowed to feel it. So is that suffering? The same act done with the patient's attention allowed to be drawn to it would result in great suffering, but remove attention and there is no suffering. And if you have children, do you remember when they were very young and they had bad dreams and how scary and upsetting that was for them? Sure, of course, right? But you knew that it was just a dream and that there was no "real" hurt that happened or could happen. But even so, weren't you still full of compassion for their emotional pain and suffering, even knowing that the cause wasn't real? Of course you were; all any parent wants to do is soothe and comfort their child. No matter how terrible and scary and hurtful life can be, and is for all of us at one time or another, suffering evaporates like nothing and *is* nothing when attention is removed from it. When attention gets drawn to itself on a regular basis then it begins to insinuate itself into every situation and creates a kind of lubrication that reduces the friction (pain) of experience. Kind of like a mag-lev train, or a hydraulic cushion between the experiencer and the experience such that suffering is eliminated or reduced.
