Quite simple they forget or fail to realise that it is all play. A child can go from pure joy to screaming tears of pain and back to smiles again in seconds depending on what engages their brain. What you reap is what you sow. If you take the physical world to be real then you tie your consciousness to physical reality.
You see a scene in a film and wince. Another person simply laughs out. Two distinct reactions to the same scene. It is a question of your perspective in life.
God gives you the choice. If you wish to remain in the physical world
and chose to accept it as reality then it will impinge upon you physically.
If however you cultivate a detachment then the physical membrane begins
to dwindle. You become an observer
rather than a character trapped in a role. As the character you are
at the mercy of all the turbulence in the world. As an observer you are
insulated from every source of pain no matter what is the source.
Suffering is in the mind and not in reality. A bone breaks. The pain is in the mind and not in the bone. The mind can be controlled. It can rise above all. Unfortunately most fail to rise above and fall short. This is why God's sends us spiritual masters to show us where we are going wrong. They are the beacon to true/inner joy which lies beyond the physical/unreal world.
A person with inner joy may be forced to witness the slaughter of his
entire family and then himself be tortured to death and still
be praying to the Lord without distraction or pain. Thus one can lose
the pain, misery, sorrow, depression, etc, etc.
Why does the pain exist in the first place? It too is part of the fun, the challenge. It gives the game a dose of being concrete, real, spice, etc. It also shows us that we are not quite playing the game correctly. We are if you like infringing the rules. There has to be a penalty for this. God allows no cheating. The game contains snakes and ladders. So beware!
If only God exists, which I believe is the case, then he can do as he likes unto himself. If he plays pranks on himself and humiliates himself then that is his choice. It is morally beyond reproach. He is however perfectly fair. He allows us to have the choice. We can stay where we are suffering or we can go back to our true source or reality.
The physical contains all the flaws which God lacks. Thus he plays by camoflaging the absolute to form the relative. The two realities put together form the complete grid of infinite possibility whether real or in imagination. Together they give God everything. God is the complete spectrum of all infinite universes. He is the One all pervading existence everywhere and at all times.
Cheers, Anand.
Last updated: 2001/11/02