Pain comes from ignorantly running away from the Self’s guidance and direction (for all rebellion against the Self is, at its root, ignorance).
By Roberto Assagioli, Original Title: Dolore – sue cause e suo scopo . Translated by Jan Kuniholm and Francesco Viglienghi, derived from the Assagioli Archive in Florence.
Man is here on earth to do the work of the Ego. [1] Peace, Strength and Harmony come to Man when he lives in accord with his Self, his Spiritual Soul.
An event which is most awful in itself becomes full of calm and light if it has been willed by the Self. From this source arise those mysterious forces of endurance for the most arduous and daring of undertakings, both outer and inner. On the other hand, the most beautiful thing — humanly speaking — gives no lasting peace or joy and is poisoned by a subtle tenacious torment, if it is at variance with the “plan” and the WILL of the Self, even though it may be beautiful and noble in itself.
That vague sense of the “voice of conscience” becomes a clear, precise inner voice in the man who has recognized his Soul and its dominion, and the personality’s true position and work in relation to it.
The secret of Peace lies in seeking, recognizing and following the Will of one’s Self. Only the Self knows what we are here to do in this portion of life. Personally, we dig in the dark.
The Self knows, guides and directs.
Pain comes from ignorantly running away from this guidance and direction (for all rebellion against the Self is, at its root, ignorance) by presuming to do things our own way, following the deceitful suggestions of the threefold lower nature (physical, emotional and mental), and its selfish and separative tendencies. Man suffers: violent blows like hurricanes come down upon him, or sharp blades pierce his soul in silence. Sorrow leads one through many stages: passive resignation; impotent revolt; silent, lacerating despair; violent cursing; barrenness, abasement, and distrust. Each of these stages, with their innumerable gradations, teaches one something and prepares him for the next stage, which is that of Awakening and recognition of the purpose of Sorrow.
Sorrow guides one to investigate the mysteries of Life. Life is not a sealed book; it wants to be understood by man. When he turns to it, afflicted by pain, and asks, “Why do I suffer? Why does everything that lives suffer?” Life answers him, “Sorrow is the great liberator, the great purifier, the great uplifter; its most intimate work is to be the reconciler between man and Life.”
Sorrow causes man to seek his Soul, and thus to find it and to understand the meaning of his earthly existence.
Sorrow causes one to come to a detachment from the things of the senses, from fleeting things, and to cling to what is eternal, to what is truly worthwhile and holds Life, Peace, Truth, Strength, Harmony, and Beauty within it.
Sorrow appears to be man’s great enemy, and man arms himself to the teeth to fight it because he does not want to suffer. In ignorance one believes he is here to enjoy life, to play in this great gymnasium, and, at every setback, at every blow of life, it seems to him that he is abusively defrauded of that “happiness” to which he aspires and yearns, and which he believes to be his legitimate right. Therefore, in his unconsciousness, he rebels against all physical and moral suffering.
No matter how much every created being around him also suffers, he is often led to believe himself to be especially stricken by an adverse God or Fate, and so curses against him or against circumstances — and yet the possibility that he himself is the cause of his suffering does not occur to him. He becomes more and more embittered, rebellious, and plunges into a state of morbid selfishness and self-centeredness that develops his worst qualities: jealousy, envy, resentment, revenge, hatred, harshness, and misunderstanding, which are actually the fruit of the ignorance that aggravates his suffering.
Only when one awakens to the recognition of the universal function of Sorrow does he gradually become its ally.
Only the perennial doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation — in my opinion — give the key to understanding Sorrow, its cause, function and purpose; and point man to the way and means of becoming free of it by his own conscious labor through the ages. The root cause of Pain is Ignorance; its purpose is the attainment of Wisdom, Knowledge, and thus Liberation.
When Man has awakened and understood, he takes a further step and achieves ACCEPTANCE. Then life is transfigured for him.
Acceptance is more than endurance : it is cooperation, obedience and covenant with Sorrow: voluntary and conscious, and it is the “key” that opens the door to Liberation, thus to the discharge of Sorrow and stable, deep, Spiritual Peace .
Acceptance — which is agreement with the Self, with the Law — leads to the clearing of personal karma. And so, in truth, man’s great, powerful, terrible “enemy” is his closest friend: Sorrow restores Man’s Soul, which is the highest gift to which he can aspire.
One suffers because he has failed, because he has “sinned.” Sorrow is the automatic reaction of a Law that has been violated and broken. It is one of the emanations of the Law of Balance, the Law of Love and the Law of Justice. It is an expression of God’s “Strong Mercy.” Pain, from its most harsh and rudimentary forms to its most acute and penetrating, from its aspects of violent physical pain to its complex and higher forms of mental pain, is the result of error — of man-made disharmony. It is the great revealer, by the Knowledge that is Wisdom and Harmony.
One learns from Pain: at first unconsciously, then more and more consciously. In his blindness he believes that he seeks the enjoyment of the senses or his human soul, the joy that comes from human things, even noble things, which are but brief and transitory. He toils and struggles after them while confined in his small, poor, limited personality, absorbed and overwhelmed in his passions and thirsting for sensation . Sorrow, with its repeated blows, with its bitter empty disappointments, appearing to be cruel tyrannical injustice, helps man to understand little by little what he truly seeks, and to find it: the Truth that resides in himself, in his Soul, in God. So it detaches him from temporary things, breaks the veils of Illusion, which once broken inexorably show the truth they had concealed.
However lofty, Sorrow — like joy — has only a temporary function: it is a means of ascent that will leave man when its task is finished. So it is wise not to attach ourselves to Sorrow but rather to recognize its variability, its illusory existence (from the point of view of Truth, which is Absolute Perfection) and its limitations; to love Sorrow as a friend, as a means that leads us to the Goal.
Sorrow travels through Life in the company of its opposite: Joy. Through the innumerable disappointments of ephemeral joys, Sorrow leads man to the highest of joys, that is synthesis, sublimation and fulfillment: the only real and lasting joy — that of finding his Self. Sorrow, after various inharmonious and negative phases, leads man to a positive and
harmonious state that reawakens in him all the best qualities: Spiritual Love in the first place; for the man who has come to the understanding of the Sorrow that has torn him and that tears all creatures apart, and to its acceptance, opens his heart to Love and Compassion towards all that suffers. The “workers,” the “servants” of Sorrowful Humanity and of Life itself, are forgotten under the anvil of Sorrow.
For long ages Man misunderstands Life, and all his effort is directed towards conquering and enjoying what he sees surrounding him on the outside; he clings tenaciously to his affections — very often, unfortunately, only to his selfishness — and does everything to remain close to his loved ones, whom death snatches from him. One has attached himself to “things” and is dependent on them; he has imprisoned himself and suffers in his prison of materialism, desire, and ignorance — a prison without air and without Light! Sorrow wants to free him. And indeed it does liberate him: it leads him from dependence on “things” to dependence on his Soul, which is Freedom — freedom in Law, the only one to which he can aspire.
By dint of blows, sacrifice, renunciation and detachment, one comes to understand that he is here — personally — to do the work of the Self, [2]his Lord; he is here in the service of his Soul, the spark of Truth that resides within him, that IS himself.
And from this recognition, which is an essential turning point in Man’s life, a new life begins for him. From the awakening of his deep Consciousness he is led to turn all his attention, all his possibilities and efficiency towards the Lord who lives and commands within him; the outer world becomes faded, “things” release their tenacious hold on him, the prison door has been broken. Man enlarges his boundaries. He has renounced the oppressive shackles of materialism with its allurements of false light: Sorrow has purified the lower man enough so that the Pure Light can filter through his more subtle and responsive bodies, and the Inner Voice can resonate and be heard, understood and followed . Sorrow in a sense returns God to Man and Man to God; its mission is that of Peacemaker.
Sorrow is one of the grand manifestations of infinitely Wise, Powerful, Divine Love.
But Sorrow also has a broader aspect and meaning. It is not only the result of error or karma; it is inherent in the development of life itself; it is inherent in Evolution and it participates in the “Great Sacrifice” of Cosmic Manifestation, which is Limitation.
The self-limited Solar Logos in its form as Solar System may be thought to suffer in some way by the very fact of limitation. The imprisoned, crucified Christ within every human being suffers; and so on and so forth throughout the entire range of forms, each of which encloses a consciousness or germ of Life. This stifled, limited, latent consciousness or Life separated from the Universal Consciousness suffers, and the price of its expansion and free return to Oneness by passing through many stages and overcoming is: PAIN.
So the pain that one feels, the pain of the Soul chained within the form, goes beyond human experiences in a sense. It is not only a consequence of karma: it is cry and invocation of Freedom, of Self-Realization, of UNITY.
[1] Apparently meaning the work of “the personal self.” It appears that Assagioli used terms like “self, “ego,” “Self” and “soul” quite fluidly at one time, but that his choice of words crystallized over time and “ego” eventually became usually reserved for the center of the personality or personal self, and “Self “or “soul” was reserved for the entity at the spiritual level. See also Note 2 below. — Tr.
[2] “EGO,” all capitalized, in the original. This may have been an early attempt to distinguish personal self from Higher Self, using “ego” for the former and “EGO” for the latter. See note 1 above. — Tr.
