Pain is an Alarm Clock

Source: The Internet
Essay by Wong Jing-rong

Many sick people say, “Sickness is like an alarm clock.” Sickness let them wake up, to bless every morning and to thank everyone and everything they come across.

For many people, their lives really start when they are sick or suffering, only then do they drop their masks and ask themselves: Why am I so arrogant?  Do I love criticising others so much?  Why have I never praised all those around me that I love and admire?  The pain affiliated to love also allows one to start discovering: one must let go of illusion, one must let go of demand and repeatedly ask oneself, ‘Actually, in the end, what do I really want?’  This is consistent with the essence of meditation.

Abandoning our illusion is itself a kind of therapy, therapy is the return to true love.

Setbacks and pain awaken us in our journey of life: Look here, look here!  There is a problem with our belief here, we must correct it!!  It is the light we encounter after every darkness, the therapy we continuously receive and gradually we realise who we are.

Occasionally, I hear friends recount their unbearable emotional pain and I often only have one inner voice: Pain is an alarm clock. It awakens them to find out which part of their inner beliefs needs correction; even though, in the beginning, pain will bring hatred, hatred will bring defence, defence will bring avoidance and avoidance will make one lose an opportunity to evaluate oneself clearly. Moreover, avoidance will also bring duplication, where similar incidents will happen again and the only difference is the combination. 

At times, a girl may meet her first boyfriend who is a wanderer, but full of talent. The second time, she hopes that her boyfriend is not a wanderer, but a more secure and reliable person. This type of person will appear according to the requirements of her belief. However, her subconscious mind will give rise to a strange combination, as he is perhaps secure but has a different kind of wandering characteristic and a sense of helplessness.

There is a joke about a combination mistake. A black person lost his way in the desert. He was both thirsty and tired, so he prayed to Heaven for help. Heaven granted him three wishes. The black person declared his three wishes: firstly, to drink a lot of water; secondly, to have whiter skin and thirdly, to often see a female’s bottom.
Heaven granted the man’s three wishes and changed him into a toilet.

Therefore, when experiencing life, the importance is: just experience, without labelling. There is nothing wrong with pain as it is the alarm clock that wakes us up to the beginning of our new daily life. As soon as we pass judgement on matters, for example: ‘After a short period of romance, love is a long drawn mutual torture.’ or ‘I am not suited to certain types of lovers.’; once a conclusion is drawn, the subconscious mind will record and form its combination and who knows when the combination may become the joke about ‘A black person turns into a toilet’.

The real meaning in ‘learning whilst emotionally involved’ is to ‘experience without drawing  conclusions’;  to drink if it is sweet, to taste if it is bitter and to drink bravely no matter what the taste may be. When a scenario that you do not wish to see appears, just pray to Heaven to help you change your perception and pray for calmness. Although, sometimes it is a painstaking and the slow progress, the true journey of experience is ‘change can really happen overnight’!