For those of us who happen to trust in the presence of the absolute, there always remains a conundrum. The knowledge that there is presence and design is difficult to bear. How do we come to terms with our pain and distress while there is design that is all inclusive and complete? That we are bound to suffer from distress, sickness, old age and separation is obvious. How might we explain suffering with presence of this nature and magnitude? Perhaps we can’t. When we look upon absolute magnitude, there arises awe and wonder and perhaps for some, devotion and surrender. However, suffer we will, that is inevitable. It is likely that we are meant to clearly see that we suffer because we and everything that there is or can be is sheer limitedness in the face of what is complete and absolute.
We are meant to approach such magnitude and as limitedness, we can never fully comprehend it, let alone realize or possess it. In that movement, there lies the traversing of limitedness, conflict and pain. Only with that can there be the certainty that individually and collectively, we must learn to get nobler and better. With pain, if we can look past ourselves, we acquire the capability to come upon truth, peace and beauty. Not only that, perhaps only with the compassionate negotiating of inevitable suffering can we begin to value even the most apparently minute, insignificant and inconsequential. Because in the apprehension of sheer magnitude, we have to inhabit and learn to value every possibility, every happenstance and every consequence. There is no other choice.
The knowledge that there is absolute magnitude is enough! That there is meaning and purpose and kindness, and it is not meaningless, pointless chaos. With that understanding, every now and then we can glimpse beauty and meaning and sit in abject wonder, suffering notwithstanding!