Are My Lessons About Suffering or Poverty

Today we'll be looking at how suffering and lack of resources aren't usually the goal or the point, but rather signposts pointing towards lessons to be learned or goals our soul intends to achieve.

Transcript

Are My Lessons About Suffering or Poverty?

There are a lot of spiritual and religious teachings in the world which promote the benefits of denying your wants or needs for the greater good of the soul or others or both. It's said suffering builds character and scarcity prompts action and creativity, therefore we should seek out the benefits of each. There is also the concept of punishing the body or the lower self and its desires in order to free the mind to listen to higher wisdom. Over hundreds, if not thousands, of years and translation through multiple cultures and languages, these messages have become disconnected from their sources and formed into "universal" truths which are supposed to be applied to all people without regard to circumstances or the unique nature of individuals.

There is also an understanding that human embodiment is meant to be a means for souls to learn lessons. This is often talked about as if Earth is an English boarding school where lessons are assigned, teachers watch students with a critical eye and are quick to punish wrong answers. Suffering and resource insecurity are sometimes talked about as lessons to be learned from because of their spiritual benefits, but other times as punishments met out because we have made a wrong choice, deviated from our path, or are too stubborn to get through our head what we're meant to learn from whatever primary lesson we're working on.

Speaking more practically, souls, being intimately aware of their current progress in learning about themselves, decide on goals and challenges they wish to take on. This can be through embodiment or various other means. If they are choosing to embody, they then meet with their teacher to work through various factors best suited for the purpose such as sex, ethnicity, geography, family of origin, culture, family dynamics, sexual orientation, economics, relationships, education, children, skills, joys and various opportunities for learning and growth. 

At the same time the soul is working with their soul group, as most embody as family units, to choose roles and work out relationships, balancing personal needs with willingness to support the goals and needs of members of the group. Other soul groups may contact the soul to negotiate participation in their members' embodied lives. This occurs when the soul group is not able to provide a necessary relationship or opportunity which is desired for one or several of their soul group members. The soul group will reach out to a group who has that skill set or the ability to provide the desired environment and agreements are negotiated. 

During the life creation process souls choose whether outstanding learning opportunities created by previous lives will be undertaken, if they will undertake work with others to delve into unresolved or continuing relationships and whether they will take on new life experiences which help them understand being human more fully. Some have misinterpreted this as a form of "reckoning" for past misdeeds and/or past hurts, but in truth past issues are already resolved through the reintegration process after the initial life is complete. For the upcoming life, this choosing process is just that, a choice. Souls may choose through a desire for each other's best and highest good, to continue working through previous relationship issues, to provide situations for learning and growth, or to provide life lessons -hard and negative or nurturing and enriching- which support the soul in their personal goals. These situations are never punitive or retaliatory in nature and not meant as "payback" or some kind of Western societal notion of Karma. They are agreed upon by all involved parties in love and with compassion and acceptance.

All of which leads people to want to know if they have a spiritual contract requiring them to suffer or live in poverty or both. 

The answer to which is 99.999% of the time: No.

This doesn't mean the spiritual teachings about lessons or about the value of suffering and self-abnegation are wrong, in general.  The thing is, suffering and poverty are already baked into the embodied experience so there is no reason for almost anyone to make a specific contract requiring them. Suffering comes in all forms from gout and sinus infections to unrequited love or infidelity in marriage, from destructive weather events to war, and most certainly any requirement to read and understand 1000 pages of legalese or governmental findings.  Resource insecurity is also structural to this planet as we can see through various climates. Traditionally Pacific Islanders had abundance at their fingertips while the Inuit and the Sami continue a life which is full of hard work to survive intense northern environments.

While it is true, by most any measure, that there are enough resources to care for everyone currently on this planet, there has yet to be a time when there has been an intention to distribute them equitably. This creates lessons for souls about limitation, desire, interpersonal relationships, social and organizational structures, advocacy, selfishness and much more.  There's no real need for a soul to make a contract forcing resource scarcity as it occurs here in a million different ways naturally and without prompting.

When it comes to lessons, our primary responsibility in an embodied life is to care for the piece of divinity which is our own soul. Nobody else can do it for us, no relationship can take this responsibility off our hands, and no one else will ever be as good at it as we are. We are a unique light which brings the universe into being.  We are responsible for caring for our own light and this care doesn't need to be earned.  We deserve it because we are breathing.  Because we are here.  And every single being is better for their being here with us. 

So instead of being lessons in themselves, something which we need to accustom ourselves to or see as virtuous, suffering and resource insecurity are instead often sign posts which are pointing us towards the actual lessons we're here to learn.  

To quote Matshona Dhliwayo: "The world's greatest teacher is pain."  For example, how do we know we've cut ourselves?  Pain tells us not only where, but how severely and how much attention we should be paying to the situation.  Can we shake it off, do we need to cover it, or will we need to go get stitches?  Pain leads us in the right direction so we can make choices and take actions which bring us back to health. 

If we've come into this embodiment in order to learn how to advocate for ourselves, create positive self-esteem, and receive appropriate value for our contributions, then suffering can show up in the form of consistently being passed over for promotion. Or being paid less than coworkers performing the same job. Or being asked to do three additional positions, but only being recognized for one. It can come in bullying behavior from bosses or coworkers, being forced to train your own replacement as you are being made redundant, or seeing your position/division/store closed due to the bad actions/choices of others.   

In these situations, suffering is rarely the lesson, but instead it accumulates over time until we reach a tipping point where we're ready and able to advocate for ourselves. 

If the soul needs to learn improved methods for relating with others, to create interconnected and mutually beneficial relationships, then emotional and possibly physical resource scarcity points the way. This is often experienced as always being taken advantage of by others, being the one who is constantly giving to friends and family who never think to reciprocate. Or the person who is seen as strong, competent, resilient and always able to work things out, who is therefore never supported by others or allowed to show what is perceived as weakness, doubt, or burnout. This can even come in the form of friends and family perpetrating embezzlement, fraud, or theft.

The lesson in these situations is rarely to suck it up, toughen up, or just deal with it. And while strength and strength of character come from picking yourself back up when the bad things happen, if they happen repeatedly over decades, we've probably acquired more strength than we ever needed. 

Instead, we are meant to learn new ways of relating to people which lay a different foundation from which to build relationships.

For example, there is a relationship style which I refer to as the Vending Machine. This is where the person in question is loving, giving, and constantly helping out everyone they know. The problem being no one ever gives back in kind, or at all, and often they get offended when it's suggested that they should. The person ends up feeling exhausted, abused, lonely, and wondering why this always happens to them no matter what they do.

What I point out in these situations is no one has an equal, reciprocal relationship with a vending machine. We put in what is required to get out what we want and then we leave without a second thought. Or we put in what's required, don't get what we want, and we start taking steps to force the machine to do its job. Any relationship, whether they be friends, co-workers, partners, or family starts with a foundation built on how we act in the world. If we seek to create connection with others through offering to do things for them, then this is the baseline they will accept as who we are and how we wish to be in the world. They will agree we are a vending machine, giving in order to connect, and they will treat us as such. 

The suffering and emotional resource scarcity which comes from this is meant to prompt the person to value themselves more highly, learn to create relationships through mutually enjoyable and even supportive interactions and from there, hopefully receive as much as they give if not more.

There are many examples of suffering and poverty as signposts pointing towards lessons, but one of the more intense and comprehensive comes from intimate partnerships. Partners can grow apart so there is no relating left in the relationship, yet feel they need to stay together for a variety of reasons so just suffer through their day to day. Or one partner can have and control all the finances and assets so the other must spend emotional capital in order to get even their most basic needs met. Finances can keep couples together because they simply can't afford to live apart even though the relationship is awful, and they struggle with the harm this does them hourly. Childhood traumas can be triggered by argument styles, financial struggles or even social settings while assumptions and miscommunications can leave people stunned when the truth of what they actually want out of each other and life is revealed.

Suffering and poverty of resources in these situations are like Tibetan prayer bells being rung on mountains or over valleys calling us back to our true selves and the next phase of our path. They aren't meant to be suffered through for their own sake, but instead to point us towards possible solutions. 

So, if you find yourself in situations of resource insecurity or long term suffering, it's highly unlikely you're meant to simply hunker down and accept it hoping for something good to come later on. Rather you can look at these situations as signs pointing you towards changes you can make to improve your situation, lessons you can learn to upgrade your opportunities or transform your capabilities, or paths which will lead you into a life which is better. In your soul book there will be specifics about what lessons you intended to work on with this life, if what you're currently experiencing is a lesson, and what options you have for working through them. You can also ask your guides to give you more information about any situation you're in and your Higher Self is always available to help you navigate through things on your path.