Higher self and suffering

http://www.channelingerik.com/forum/#/20100210/question-about-the-higher-self-1886075/

A reader of the Channeling Erik forum asked the following questions. A friend of Erik's and mine, 'Ashley' responded. I thought so well of her answer that I wanted to post it here.

Can we get the higher-self to alleviate our suffering?

If a person is suffering so much, but it is because of karma or otherwise, can this person pray to the higher self to never feel so many negative emotions in a “future” life ever again after the current life ends? Or better yet, can the suffering person make a conscious decision and tell the higher self to never reincarnate ever again, after this life, so that they would never feel such horrible emotions again; even though this person has reincarnated thousands of times already? Would the higher self ignore this decision because it thinks that the person doesn’t understand the beauty of such suffering to get to the ultimate goal and the higher self would still reincarnate anyway?

Well, the higher self IS you... you're a singular expression of it - it's hanging out on earth during this time period dressed up as you - and simultaneously it's also hanging out in other time periods as other people, which to you looks like your past or future incarnation. And any other incarnations of the higher self are not necessarily equivalent to you - they are completely other singular expressions. So, it's not really YOU that's reincarnating (but it kind of is, since your higher self IS you). The you that you know yourself to be only lives this once. When you die, you cross to the spirit realm and go back to being the higher self, but with all the memories and personality that you know as yours. Erik, for example.. when we talk to him, it's actually his higher self representing itself as the expression we know as Erik - it IS Erik because Erik's higher self IS Erik. It can represent itself as any of it's other incarnations (which we would also refer to as Erik's other incarnations because they are all the same higher being) at the same time. That was confusing.. I hope I didn't lose you lol So anyway - the question is kind of a moot point because praying to your higher self is like praying to your reflection in a mirror. Just because you're here right now and can't remember why doesn't mean you didn't know what it was going to be like before you got here.

But, to further explore the latter half of your question regarding suffering - Karma isn't a force that is enacted upon you, (Erik says karma is manmade). All Karma is, is when your higher self sees that it maybe made a mess of things in one incarnation and decides it wants to try to set it right in another.

The higher self chose a specific set of circumstances for its incarnation as a particular person for a reason - to experience something, or to remember something (which looks like 'learning' from our perspective). Suffering is all about how you perceive a situation - in any given situation you can perceive it as suffering or you can perceive it as something else(look for the bright side, etc.). Emotional reactions are not something that are forced upon you, your emotions are a product of you and how you view the situation. It's all a matter of perspective.

It's my current opinion that a big part of what a lot of us are here to do is to learn how to choose our reactions to such situations - in essence, to learn to control your emotions, and not let them control you. Throughout your life, you've conditioned yourself to respond in certain ways to certain situations. Society has conditioned us, our parents have conditioned us, culture has conditioned us - but it does not have to be this way. In any given situation, when I feel a negative emotion coming on (sadness, greif, anger, fear) I can stop, acknowledge the feeling and then start asking myself why I feel that way. Keep asking and answering until I come to the root cause of the emotion. Once I reach that point, I can acknowledge the feeling and release it, and then I can choose to react out of love rather than a negative emotion. I can choose look at any situation life throws at me from any perspective, preferably a positive one that evokes a response from the soul rather than from the ego. When you respond with love from the soul, you are remembering who you really are - a spiritual being. It's not easy by any means. It's just part of the path of enlightenment.

For me, it's about accepting the event and learning from it - not resisting it. That's why we say "That which you resist, persists." When you react negatively, most often it is because you are rejecting or resisting the event. It puts you in a negative state of mind which, in turn, continues drawing negative events to you that will produce more negative feelings. When you stop yourself, and choose a higher emotion - acceptance and release - then you've changed your perspective and you've changed your state of being. It no longer matters what kind of difficult situations are tossed your way - you are able to overcome them with love. You've remembered your higher state of being.

If you could not learn how to do that in one life time, you (which is also your higher self) will in many cases continue trying in other lifetimes. So, in essence, no amount of begging or praying is going to change the situation - no outside force is going to swoop in and change things either in this life or another, because the whole point is for you to figure it out while you're here. It would sort of defeat the purpose.