Who suffers? All suffering refers to a subject who suffers.
The question "Who Suffers?" causes a reflection on the nature of he who suffers.
Is the "I" who suffers in fact 'real', or is it but a mental construct?
Let us examine the way in which stored data within memory plays a role in the elaboration of the self's image. Parents, friends and society all teach us that the body that we see is "me", that this reacting personality is "me", and that the role I play in society is "me". Through this, we can deduce with conviction that each of these objects of perception represents "my" identity.
By placing aside all the acquired knowledge stored in our memory, we can ask, with the necessary intensity, the question "Who am I?". The field of answers will show that not one thought-produced answer is satisfying. We know we are not mere mental representations, such as an idea, a thought or a function. The understanding of all that we are not will bring a natural dis-identification with all that is associated with the thought-realm and mental output.
An attentive examination, such as this, will not allow the question "Who am I" to be hidden in endless mental elaboration.
The question will then remain suspended, without any answer that can be elaborated upon at a conceptual level.
The lack of an answer is accompanied by a feeling of authenticity. The conviction arises that the answer is not of the mind, and that it is known as though it were our selves. Without answering the question "Who am I", and living with this lack of an answer is a consumed art demanding a deep maturity and a refined sense of discrimination.
Let us return then to the problem of suffering.
The question "Who am I", in the context of suffering, will show the non-existence of the sufferer. This states that the "I am" who is exempt from suffering is, like any other, an object of observation. However, the "I" who recognizes the suffering is furthest from the process. A non existing "I" can not suffer.
Suffering is then, primarily, an objective reaction at a corporeal level. All suffering is a sign of refusal of the present situation. This refusal is linked to an incomprehension, or being enclosed in a system of choice and preference conditioned by memory. Once realized, a period of relaxation and appeasement follows. The I-image, constantly implicated in the mechanisms of suffering, no longer has the foundation to exist.
Without a suffering or denying "I", suffering can but dissolve in an enlarged space. This reabsorption is a prelude to its disappearance. Once suffering disappears, happiness is. A simple joy of living that is no longer associated with a situation, nor an object, nor an image. One that is left to nothing but itself.
Abstract of a lecture. IASP conference on "Psychotherapy
and self-realization - The ego, the suffering, the end of suffering", Paris,
1995.
Translated from French by Michael Smith