9. Not a Minute of Suffering
A Ladder of Desire
Think about the last time you were completely absorbed in something. A conversation, a piece of work. While you were there, you probably stopped noticing your body — the ache in your back, whether you were hungry, what time it was. The body was still there. It just was not the whole picture anymore.
Desire runs in levels, like a ladder. The lowest levels are the inanimate, the plant, and the animal. Above them is what we call the human level. The levels do not stand side by side. Each higher desire overrides the ones below it. The stronger the higher desire, the more it quiets everything beneath it.
This explains why being absorbed feels the way it does. When a person is absorbed in an idea, they barely notice the body. The body is still there. It just stops being the whole picture. This is how desire is built in every one of us.
The Levels of Desire
The levels become clear when you look at each level from the inside. At the human level, a person is absorbed in something beyond their own body — an idea, a purpose, a concern for something outside themselves. While they are there, they stop noticing the body. The human level is the step above the animal level, above material life.
Step down one level and the picture reverses. At the animal level, a person mainly feels the body. But even there, not everything is felt. A person feels no pain when their hair or nails are cut, because that growth belongs to the plant level. Step down once more, to the inanimate level, and there is no feeling at all.
Both Directions
Once the levels are clear, both directions become clear. A person develops from the bottom up. At the end of life, they move the other way. The higher concerns fall away, level by level, and the person returns to the simple levels where they began. It is a gradual return, not a sudden break.
The Importance of Society
Now add connection. A person who lives inside a society that keeps them connected is not carrying life alone. When something goes wrong for them, they are supported by everyone around them. The people near them supply what is missing.
This is how a healthy body works. When a splinter enters the body, the whole body moves against it, surrounding the spot and pushing it out. A connected society does the same for each person. It feels where someone is struggling and supplies what they need, and the person is healed.[1]
Not a Minute of Suffering
When a person's desire is pointed at something important, they stop feeling pain. We saw this earlier: absorbed in an idea, a person barely notices the body. The higher desire overrides the lower one.
Now point that desire at others. When a person's desire and importance are directed toward the people around them, the same thing happens.[3] Their own pain stops being the center of attention, because their attention is on the people they care about.[2]
This is the breakthrough. A person in a connected society gets both things at once. Their desire is directed toward others, so their own pain does not overwhelm them. And when something happens to them, the people around them step in and supply what is missing.[1] That is why such a person need not spend a single minute suffering — in life, or at its end.
Q&A
Should the question of life and death be something we teach?
Yes, because it rests on desire, not on belief. A person can watch their own desire rise and fall and see the levels for themselves; nothing has to be taken on faith. The material is already in the person, and the teaching only needs to make it visible.