I mentioned earlier about taking store of things that will not be necessary for the journey. This is just me talking, but I have found ‘suffering’ to be of utmost importance at the initial stages of a journey. Once the asset of suffering has done its job, it needs jettisoning. This has nothing to do with pain that we will see as an unlikely friend where we are going-being a part of what we need to navigate.
Suffering I have found to be the greatest motivator to deep journeys. When I just can’t stand what I perceive as who I am and this ‘I’ is always where I go, then I need a new story. All your suffering will be found in your ego, the normal usage of ‘I’. It is here we keep our primordial error, misconception of who we are-ego. Albert Einstein called it the “optical illusion of consciousness”. It is here that we make all further misinterpretations of reality, all thought processes, interactions, and relationships. The same man said basically, ‘we can’t expect to shift paradigm using the material from the old one’.
To journey inward it is imperative to be sick of suffering and ready for new tools, not of the mind-body that holds all you think your self to be.
Next I will look at how to observe ourselves getting ready for journey, so to know who we will be caring for on the trip.
Spiritual Formation 