We human beings need to suffer. Why? Because, if we didn’t we’d have nothing to talk about. Honestly! Watch an average news broadcast. Ask yourself how many of those stories would be there if the people involved were completely happy. If they were totally at peace with themselves. Nadda. Ziltch. None. The newscaster would just stare at the camera. There would be dead-air. Or, perhaps, she would sit and smile. Or, she'd wave and say, "Hi Mom." Maybe she’d talk about her dog, Ernie, who made the cutest growls this morning when she gave him a "goooood squawatch. He’s sooo cuuuute!" The world as we know it would be devoid of drama - Bor - ring!

Human suffering is a major employer for a huge segment of the Earth’s population. Consider how many people would be put out of work, if all of us happily accepted who we are, where we lived, how we looked, and who we were married to. Yikes! Sales of cosmetics, new cars, bigger and better houses, the latest electronic gadgets - practically everything - would plummet. If we don’t buy things to mask what we look like or to keep up with the Jones', we certainly buy stuff to make ourselves feel better. Shopping should be given consideration as an Olympic demonstration sport. More of us excel at it than all the other sports combined.

According to all those spiritually realized types, if you're truly content, you don’t need all those external, material things to soothe yourself. And, you don’t get bored if you're at peace, so there would be no need to shop just for "fun," either. Though, I imagine, if we were all that content, we’d still need to shop for some things - saffron robes, brown rice, toilet paper - the essentials.

The weight loss industry. Tobacco manufacturers. The makers of Prozac. Hugh Hefner. Dr. Phil. CNN. Think of the impact! If everyone practiced samtosha (contentment) 24/7, 365 days of the year, these folks and those industries would have a lot of time and extra products on their hands. And, here’s the irony of it all, if they too were content with their lives, they’d simply accept the fact their services were no longer needed, pack up and go on to do something else. Sarah Ferguson might become a spokes-person for a tree-hugging organization instead of Weight Watchers. (If everyone was happy, we’d have lots of time to clean up the planet). The tobacco farmers could plant food to feed the world’s hungry, thus making those contented starving people, still content, but not so starving. The makers of Prozac could make vitamins. Hugh Hefner might switch from publishing Playboy to a farming magazine. You know, tomatoes, rabbits, etc. This brave, new samtosha world could end up being one heck of a yawn, huh?

Think about your average phone conversation, or chat over coffee. What if everybody had nothing to complain about? If everyone was practising samtosha 100% of the time, there would still be challenges, still be obstacles to overcome, but people wouldn’t resist things the way they do. A lot of suffering comes from the attitude we take to the challenges we face. One person loses his job and sees it as an opportunity to find new work and meet new people. Another sees it as the end of the world. One person tackles an illness or chronic pain with a positive attitude, and develops empathy and compassion along the way. Another becomes embittered. One person becomes a quadriplegic, like Christopher Reeve, and goes on to make huge contributions to society. Another wants to commit suicide. One person sees all people as his brothers regardless of past injustices. Another is blinded by hate. Samtosha would mean the end of gossip. The end of psychotherapy. The end of the armed services and police departments. People would have to take up a lot of gardening and feng-shui instead.

All joking aside. My "samtosha world," ain’t going to happen anytime soon. People seem to need to go through the karmic kar-wash of life with their foot on the brakes - plus the parking-brake engaged as well. Myself included. I’m human, after all. Got a driver’s license to prove it. Lots of times, when I think I’ve come to a point where I can handle just about anything life can throw at me, the Universe winds up and pitches a real doozy over the plate. Unfortunately, just because you’ve lived through Hell itself, doesn’t make you immune to even more Hell - unless you’ve totally figured out this enlightenment gig. I haven’t - by a long shot. And even if "you’ve arrived," you could still be submitted to the worst circumstances imaginable. Enlightenment isn’t a, "get of jail free card." You’re free only in the sense you’re at peace with whatever comes your way.

What’s that they say? "God doesn’t give you anything He knows you can’t handle." Well, guess what, we’re God and we write our own scripts, and we don’t give ourselves anything we don’t think we can’t handle. But, when the chips are down, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed, when the pain you thought you’d gotten out of, returns with a vengeance. Or, when you lose your job and your house and you have to start over from scratch. Or, when the most important person in the world to you is wiped off the face of the Earth in a traffic accident.

And, even if you practice meditation and yoga till the cows come home, unless you’re the Buddha or Jesus, getting raped or losing your child to cancer is going kick the %$@# out of you. But Samtosha doesn’t mean you’re devoid of feelings. Doesn’t mean you’re totally blissed-out in the face of tragedy. What is does mean is acceptance. Coming to a place inside you which says, "I can’t change this. But, I’m at peace with it." You can still cry. Even Jesus cried out on the cross. Yet, when you think about it, He’d made peace with things. In your world, with your own struggles, coming to that place, might take a long time. But it takes longer, the more we resist, the more we put up a fight using our most powerful emotions - rage, despair, paranoia, hopelessness. They only serve to block any insights which can help deliver us from ourselves. Samtosha, applied to life’s biggest problems, is like sending a ladder down a deep well. Until you send that life-line of acceptance down there, everything can seem dark. Can seem insurmountably painful. As hard as it may seem at first, the more you accept things as they are, the more steps you take up that ladder. Each step is a release. A step closer to freedom. A step closer to Your Self.

Catherine Dale - January 15th, 2004