[From I Am That] Nisargadatta on pleasure pain and growth

After opening the book to a random page and reading some passage that I underlined in the past, here are a few thoughts from I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj on pleasure, pain and understanding that I think are worth sharing. Excerpts from pages 305-306

Maharaj: It is the I-am-the-body idea that is so calamitous. It blinds you completely to your real nature. Even for a moment do not think that you are body. Give yourself no name, no shape. In the darkness and the silence reality is found.

[...]

Questioner: Must we not suffer to grow?

Maharaj: It is enough to know that there is suffering. That the world suffers. By themselves neither pleasure nor pain enlighten. Only understanding does. Once you have grasped the truth that the world is full of suffering, that to be born is a calamity, you will find the urge and the energy to go beyond it. Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you do not want to suffer don't go to sleep. You cannot know yourself through bliss alone, for bliss is your very nature. You must face the opposite, what you are not, to find enlightenment.

Before I share some of my thoughts on the above, for those who are not familiar with Nisargadatta (an Indian petty merchant turned spiritual teacher after he was enlightened), when he says 'to be born is a calamity', he (probably) means that to think that you are a body that is born and dies (i.e. identifying with the body) is the calamity.

As regards the above text it makes me think that we totally underestimate the importance of depression, loneliness, mid-life crises, downs, the blues, growing pains, losing a loved one, unemployment, heart breaks, loss of health and generally all of life's down periods. 'Pain wakes you up'...It is only during these periods that we find ourselves asking ourselves deep questions, the deepest questions and struggle with the answers. It is also the only times we really consider significant change and/or act on it. The good times are great, but we just surf on the good times, which is probably important to do too, as that is akin to being in the moment. But we probably need to balance that with introspection, soul-searching, tough questions and the like; and human nature is such that we usually only do that (at least for more than a few minutes) when we are forced to. The periods in which we have the blues are a true occasion for change, progress, understanding... My own experience seems to corraborate that. While I like to think that I am smarter than that and can learn to shave on others' beards, it turns out that I amn't. Nope I needed to pay the dues to figure out even the basics, which I am still working on (they always need work...).

It is ironic that Maharaj tells us that if we don't want to suffer, don't go to sleep. Since sleep is what we usually want to do most when we are suffering from the blues. Obviously he means going to sleep in a metaphysical sense, which is what he claims most of humanity has chosen - sleep over awakening. Metaphysical awakening, to our true natures - which to him is bliss, understanding we are one with the Universe - will help us to understand that there is no suffering.

The final idea though is what strikes me the most: 'You must face the opposite, what you are not, to find enlightenment.' As if we have all chosen sleep and suffering in order to find our way back to our true natures. Some kind of metaphysical game of hide and go seek?