Conscious Labor & Intentional Suffering
Conscious Labor & Intentional Suffering
Conscious Labor & Intentional Suffering
J.G.B. Well, in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ said, 'Resist not
evil.' The whole of the end of that passage and the next verses are all
about this. 'If a man take your cloak, let him have your coat also.' And 'If a
man compel you to go a mile, go with him twain.' 'Bless them that curse
you; pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.'
You hear what I say; perhaps you will agree with all of it and no doubt
you agree with most of it. But if you look at yourself you can say, 'Well,
sometimes I have really been like that when I have had this attitude
towards suffering, towards what has to be eliminated, what has to be
transmuted and what has to be accepted. But I have not yet made this my
own; it has not yet become understanding for me.' Only experience will do
that. There is no short cut to it.
This I can say: this experience will come. It is a great thing when our
attitude towards suffering is really changed so that it is separated, it is
really liberated from these other attitudes. It does not mean that we have
become perfect or that we have attained the freedom that is required, but