The answer to that question is no. In an awakened person there is no person to suffer. Awakening is freedom from the person, freedom from this idea and experience of separation. And that means freedom from suffering.
How is it that sometimes, although very rarely, awakened people do seem to suffer? This can happen and what it simply means is that sometimes awakened people are not awake. The repressed and hidden sense of separation can re-emerge when it has not been completely purified. At that point, the awakened person is no longer awake. They have fallen back asleep and re-entered the dream of separation.
Usually this is very temporary and may only last a few seconds. During those few seconds suffering will be experienced. The nature of the ego is suffering. Fortunately the awakened person has many resources to avoid being stuck in what most people experience as their normal life.
Principal among these resources is complete acceptance and love of whatever arises, including a sense of separation and suffering. Both suffering and the ego (They are interchangeable terms.) are built entirely from resistance. This total lack of resistance is what returns our attention and experience to the freedom of our True Awakened Self.
This experience of ego and suffering is a necessary part of the purification process. Whatever has been repressed and hidden must re-emerge to be re-experienced and set free. We do this through total acceptance, allowing and love. Whatever is not True will always dissolve when seen clearly and openly. Whatever is True will deepen. So this practice is always beneficial.
From the awakened perspective it is very clear that everything is happening perfectly and entirely for our benefit. This includes those moments when we are not awake. For without those moments this necessary purification process would not be possible.
The awakened person cannot suffer for there is no suffering in the True Self. Nor is there a separate person to suffer. And yet most awakened people do experience suffering occasionally, although extremely rarely compared to the human population as a whole. During these moments, they are no longer awake. As long as there is some repressed remnant of separation left to be purified, this will naturally re-emerge to be seen clearly and set free. It is all part of a beautiful and perfect process.
I think, this is the hardest and most difficult part for me. I feel bliss deep within my heart, I even feel peace and most of all Love. I feel this constantly and it is not going away nor coming through anything I do. It is there whatever I do, feel or think.
And yet there is a huge problem in my life that needs to be solved. To surrender this issue is the hardest thing ever as it is about pure survival. I feel no suffering but I am also not okay with this situation. Whenever I try to solve it or understand it a deep calm comes over me and I just let go and am in this state of what I would call non-being. I know I can only surrender this situation. I let it go daily but I only have a few days left.
I have no desire to be enlightened or anything else like that. It is just not there, and I don’t know if I am aware or not…again not really important. But I have people to take care of and seeing that they are so miserable because of me, because there seems to be no solution, is very hard for me. But I know there is no solution in the world. I know only by surrendering it fully, by being in this state of being/non-being, it might dissolve.
People say I give so much joy and love to others. I don’t do anything except being myself, but I see the suffering my situation creates and it saddens me.
Yet I know there is nothing I can do to change the situation, except surrender but there is no guarantee that this will finally heal the situation. I suppose this is the hardest for me. Even if I surrender, even when I am in this state of peace and Love – I don’t know if it changes anything.
Thank you for your post, Marlene. This is very beautiful presence. What you are surrendering is the illusion of our conditioned thoughts. The world and other beings are not what we think they are. Situations are not what we think they are. You and your body are not what you think they are. There is something else here. And that nameless and inconceivable something else is where the experience of bliss is coming from. This is your True Nature and the True Nature of all existence. We cannot call it either form or formless. No concepts apply.
When we want to change a situation, we are distracted from the peace, bliss, and love that is always present as our True Nature. When we think we understand a situation, it is only our conditioned thoughts that believe they understand. Behind all that we perceive is the fundamental perfection of all existence. You are experiencing this now. Most do not as they are far more distracted by their conditioned thoughts than you are. Intuitively you know exactly what to do. Although your mind does not. None of our minds knows what to do. Intuitively we all know exactly what to do. So you are correct that surrender is the correct path. You are surrendering the conditioned illusion of your thoughts so you can realize the reality of your True Nature and the True Nature of all existence. And that you are doing.
Worrying about the situation you perceive through your mind is like worrying about a situation in a dream. Whatever you do, it is still a dream. Still we do the best we can with this dream world. We always do the best we can, realizing that no outcome is ever guaranteed. It is best to be present in the moment to whatever actions are required and not be concerned about outcomes or expectations. Simply be. Allow the appropriate actions to flow naturally from this beingness. Stay present in the moment. Then you will see that problems are not what you think they are.
I hope this helps.