Q: There’s something that’s been on my mind, that I struggle with. The apparent random creation and destruction, and the violence that is experienced in the destructive stage. We’re sometimes told that we need to change our perspective on troubled times. We need to see the flow of creation, existence, destruction, creation. Have no attachment to the moment. Have no personal liking or disliking. Let it be. It’s all part of the grander way of things. But the cycle of destruction and creation often seems random and it can be terrifying and depressing. How do we handle all this?
The cycle of creation and destruction is unavoidable, and yes, it often feels random and even cruel. But the hard truth is that pain and crisis are catalysts for transformation.
When the pain becomes enough, it creates a crisis. A spiritual journey becomes serious rather than an idea. We finally say, “Enough! This is unacceptable! I refuse to live this way anymore.” And we begin searching for the way out, the way through.
At some level, we know there’s a way through, because we all carry the seed of remembering. But we don’t remember the details. We just know it shouldn’t be like this, and there has to be a way through. So, we set ourselves on a spiritual scavenger hunt. The spiritual journey often mirrors the hero’s journey: separation from the self, experiencing crisis, deciding to change, setting out on a path, facing challenges, and ultimately arriving at resolution—at peace.
The challenge the modern world faces, one that hasn’t existed in known history, is the splintering of attention. The use of fear and other negative emotions to control and trap, to prevent waking up, to prevent the ability to see through.
Q: Are you saying there hasn’t been a time in human history where these forces have acted the way they are now?
Negative emotions have always been used as tools to control. What’s different now is the scale and speed. For the first time in history, nearly the entire world is connected and facing the same challenges simultaneously. The constant flood of information, misinformation, fearmongering, and emotional manipulation bombards us 24/7. So, yes, this has never happened in this way before.
This unrelenting noise divides our attention, making it far more challenging to wake up spiritually. It keeps us in a state of fear and reaction, preventing us from seeing clearly or remembering who we are at our core.
But this global pain is also creating something extraordinary: the potential for a massive spiritual awakening worldwide.
Q: What’s the best way to get through this period?
Do what you can where you can, and then let go. Let go of the need to control everything. Let go of attachment to outcomes. To accept that this is a time of destruction and painful change. That doesn’t mean you have to like it or agree with it, but choose to walk on and not look back.
This doesn’t mean you stop caring or stop taking action. It means you focus on what you can do. Vote. Protest. Support causes you believe in with your time, money, or skills. But after you’ve done what you can, step back. Because the more we become engaged in the mundane struggles and political crises, the more we live in fear and pain, which in turn causes feelings of hopelessness.
The spiritual work is always the same. Meditate. Spend time reading uplifting material. Seek out positive people. Contribute to the world in ways that feel meaningful to you. And leave the rest to itself.
Q: Some people might hear this and think, “Letting go sounds passive. Isn’t this just giving up and letting the bad guys win?”
That’s a common misconception. Letting go is not the same as giving up. It’s about conserving your energy for what truly matters. Hand-wringing, constant worry, and living in fear help no one. They don’t change the world; they only drain you.
Instead, take focused, intentional action. Do what you can, and then release the need to control everything beyond your reach. Not in the sense of Pollyanna: “Everything will be okay, so I don’t need to worry.” Positive in the sense of, “In this moment I choose to be as awake and aware and present as I can.” Because only in that presence can one know the deepest truth for themselves.
Only by being connected with the deepest sense of Self and quieting the noise of our ego and the external world can one remember the inner knowing and find the answers we are looking for. From a place of pure knowing, not from manipulation.
Q: Speaking of ego, how do we distinguish between the voice of our ego and the voice of our higher wisdom in daily life?
Ego is always noisy. Higher wisdom is almost always quiet.
Ego is the mind chattering, the emotions fluctuating. It is like an untrained Australian Shepherd who thinks its job is to run hither and yon, and collect up everything in a 300-acre radius, including the ants and mosquitoes.
Wisdom is the shepherd who sits quietly and waits for the dog to exhaust itself so it can begin teaching and sharing what it knows.
Q: If it’s not doing it through noise and running around, how is that inner shepherd communicating with us? How do we hear that wisdom? How do we receive it?
To hear your higher wisdom, you have to quiet the mind through meditation because meditation is the off-switch for the ego. It teaches you to stop reacting to every thought and emotion, to sit in stillness and listen. Only in that stillness can you hear the wisdom that comes from within. The dog has to stop chasing every little piece of dust and stop. And sit in quiet. And then it can begin to hear.
The challenge with the ego is that it thinks it should already know everything. It acts as though it does already know everything. And can often put on quite a spectacular show to convince itself and others that it knows everything.
By quieting the mind and seriously committing to listening rather than speaking, that’s how we begin to hear the voice of the inner teacher. This is the same with intuition. Intuition is quiet; it is not loud. The inner teacher is quiet; it is not loud. Because they do not come from the physical plane, they have a more ephemeral form. And those who are deeply immersed in the physical plane have a very difficult time identifying and connecting with ephemeral forms.
This is where pain and suffering’s purpose becomes truly revealed: to push one to stop. To completely stop. In being forced to stop, the self experiences humility. Once the self finally accepts that it must stop, the self begins to switch from a feeling of failure to the beginnings of a feeling of recognition: “I can see, now that I have stopped, that I needed to learn this lesson or know this thing or meet this person or change this direction.” Only at the full stop can any awareness begin, can creation begin.
If people understood the full power held in the stop, they would do everything in their power to experience that stopping as often as possible. And then it would not require pain to push one to that place of having to let go, but rather to choose to let go because one understands the miracle about to happen. The spiritual awareness they are about to connect with.
Once that fully happens, that spiritual connection can never be broken again. It can never be forgotten again. It might be temporarily affected by external factors or the remnants of the ego, but it will quickly right itself again. Because now it knows. And there is great joy and relief in that knowing. That is the answer to why there is suffering in the world.
The staggering truth is that everyone has access to a way out of this pain and suffering—it’s right there in front of them. And still, most don’t use it; most people don’t meditate. Because meditation requires a kind of self-discipline that the modern world does everything it can to prevent us from developing. And most of us are not willing to let go of the poisons we ingest mentally and emotionally every day. So, the pain and suffering continue.
Suffering has always been the push that forces awakening, but it was never meant to be the only way. Pain is the great interrupter, the full stop that makes us look inward. But once we learn to choose stillness and reflection without needing the crisis, the purpose of pain is fulfilled.
The real turning point on the path is when pain no longer has to shout to get our attention. When we willingly stop, listen, and remember who we are. In that remembering, suffering loses its power to define us. The destruction gives way to creation, and life begins again. This time, from awareness rather than fear.