“About Pleasure and Suffering” – Kahlil Gibran and Abheda Yoga

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The brilliant poet Kahlil Gibran, in his “The Prophet”,
synthesized a fascinating wisdom, which, with the help of the Abheda Yoga perspective, we manage to decipher in a splendor of practical understandings of life.

We find in DEX

“PLEASURES, pleasures, s.f. 1. The action of liking and its result; affective, fundamental state, determined by the satisfaction of tendencies, vital requirements; feeling or feeling of contentment, of joy, caused by something that satisfies our taste or desire. Desire, will, mood, taste.”

PAINS, pains, s.f. 1. Physical suffering endured by someone. 2. Fig. Moral suffering; sorrow, sorrow. ”

For example, we may also enjoy a compliment or praise from a person.

But at what level in us does something specify itself to be pain or pleasure?
We notice that depending on the time and place in which we live, on the education and culture acquired, on the perspective in which we look at something or other, we have the impression that something gives us pleasure or suffering.

Well, this inner reaction is at the level of the ego, and beyond it, what seems negative or positive at the level of the ego does not affect us at all.

The pleasure-pain reaction is at the ego level.

If we mention joy-sadness, it is not so easy to notice the connection with the ego, because both pleasure and joy are, anyway, limited and pale aspects of Ananda, true absolute happiness.

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Very important, essential, even, is the fact that
True happiness, which is nondual, is not affected by the pleasure-pain couple at all, but this is here, for now, theoretically.
Known practically, he leaves no room for question.

Pleasure is the absence of pain, and pain is the lack of pleasure.

Both are specific experiences of living in dualism, which does not know the One, but only the pairs of opposites.

The true miracle is experienced in “the middle of the potter’s wheel”, “in the eye of the hurricane”, and true happiness, which is divine, is not related to a pair of opposites, but

It is sufficient by itself and does not depend on events in the phenomenal world.

In addition, true happiness contains within it any kind of satisfaction that could be obtained in the world of opposites, but in a complete and wholesome way.

He who knows true happiness, which is divine, no longer needs anyone and nothing for Himself
(but he can manifest the needs of an ordinary man to support his body and family or the people who have been given to his care).

Very important, essential, even, is the fact that
True happiness, which is divine, is not affected by the pleasure-pain couple at all, but this is here, for now, theoretically.
Known practically, he leaves no room for question.

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Leo Radutz

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“Then a woman said, “Tell us about Pleasure and Pain.”
And he answered:
“Pleasure is pain without a mask
And the very well from which your laughter flowed, was often full of tears.

And how could it be otherwise?

The deeper the pain digs into your being, the more joy you will contain within you.
Isn’t the cup in which the wine awaits you the same one that the fire burned in the potter’s furnace?
And isn’t the lute that comforts your soul the same wood, before, tormented by the knife?
When you are joyful, search the depths of your heart and you will find that what fills you with joy is nothing other than what pain has given you.
When you are sad, again search your heart and you will see that, indeed, the tears come from what your delight once was.

Some of you say, “Pleasure is greater than pain,” and others say, “No, pain is greater than pleasure.”

But behold, I assure you that they are inseparable.

Together they arrive at your house and, when one sits down with you at the table, do not forget, the other has already slept in your bed.
Indeed, you are in the balance, like a balance, between your joys and sorrows.
Only when you are emptied of yourself are the plates still and in balance.
But when the keeper of the treasure lifts you up to weigh his gold and silver, your joy and sorrow must rise or fall.”

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from “The Prophet” – Kahlil Gibran