On Struggle and Suffering

It’s an error in translation to interpret the feeling of failure as a sign of actual failure. The learning process by definition is characterized by this feeling. This is something Ido seemed to suggest in the recent interview with Vika, that WE DO NOT GET RID OF SUFFERING.

Even as we say that, behind our words, there is this optimistic hope that saying this enough times will make the process easy, “by accepting this truth, the suffering will be gone, and everything will be made easy”. It’s a hidden expectation in so many of our actions.…

As if strength work ever feels like anything but what strength work feels like… which is like weakness! Lifting a thing you can only barely lift. The arbitrary numbers indicating the weight might change, but the raw feeling NEVER changes.

Only your relationship to it does; and how can the relationship to a feeling change, if the feeling itself doesn’t? WE have to change.

Maybe you’re fine with strength work - it already feels good to you. But how do you feel when you’re asked to listen to an interview between a spiritual philosopher and a theoretical physicist? You start tuning out…

IT’S THE SAME STRUGGLE.

We need to be less busy wanting our work to feel easy, and more busy finding the right challenges for us. Not a “close your eyes till flames pass through me” kind of thing, but what is the challenge that will demand from me effort, but not crush me beneath?