Council Gamma, support sector
May 2001

The Healing of Suffering

Meeting of the Humanist Movement

Game: the conductor choses a game to make the partcipants feel at ease.

Concuctor:
This meeting aims at spreading Silo’s theses as expressed in the speech “The Healing of Suffering“. This type of work, in a team, is based on the hypothesis that human groups, united by direct communication, possess a high degree  of experience and intelligence and that, these, oriented by a coherent direction, can reach levels of wisdom. It’s for this reason that ,in this meeting, we first follow the thread of our reflections on the proposed themes and we then read the text in which Silo expèosed his theses  on the 4th of May 1969.
 As usual in our works the attitude is not that of judging others or judging oneself, but that of knowing ourselves in a deeper way  and without fears, with the intention of giving to our lives a more coherent direction. For this reason the person that conducts the meeting more than giving explanations tries to stimulate reflection and direct communication.

Reading: ( when possible during the projection of the video with the sequences of images in Punta de Vacas 1969)
The military dictatorship in Argentina had prohibited any kind of public demonstrations in towns. Therefore it was decided to pronounce this speech in a desolated place at the border beetwen Chile and Argentina, this place was known as Punta de Vacas. From the first ligths at dawn , authorities disposed themselves to control all the access ways : the posts of the machineguns could be seen clearly and everywhere there where military  motor vehicles and armed men. To get to the place of the speech people were obliged to present  an identity document and to fournish personal data, this created not a few problems beetwen soldiers and  international press. Finally, in the wonderful  scenario of the mountains covered by snow, Silo started talking  in front of an auditory of around 200 people. The day was cold and sunny. At midday all was finished.
This is the first public speech of Silo. In a language  from time to time poetical Silo declares that the most important knowledge in life , the “ true wisdom”  does not equal to knowledge we find in books or maybe the knowledge of universal laws but it rather is  a question of personal experience, intimate experience. The most important knowledge for life is in the comprehension of suffering and of the way that allows us to overcome it.

C. : Before listening to the text of the speech, we will try to undestand the points that are expressed in it through the exchange of experience, following so in practice the way indicated  by Silo for true wisdom: a way that passes  through  intimate, personal experience and internal meditation. These are the theses expressed in the speech, as you can see they are very simple. ( look Complete Works, Speeches, The Healing of Suffering, Silo.)

 1. After establishing a difference between physical pain, with its consequences and  mental suffering, Silo declares that physical pain can be defeated through the progresses  of science and justice, mental suffering instead cannot be eliminated by any progress of that kind;

The participants make examples of physical pain and mental suffering, and we try to write two lists, the widest possible, helping , if necessary, in letting images rise and being expressed.
We then discuss on how  science’s and justice’s progresses can defeat  physical pain but are not sufficient to overcome mental suffering.

2. Three are the ways that conduct to suffering: the way of perception, the way of memory and that of imagination;

We try to relate the examples of mental suffering mentioned above to one of these 3 ways.

3. Suffering indicates a condition of violence;

We try to define violence ( support Futura video ), when the definition has been found we try to list  different situations of violence ( situations because we do not want to talk about abstract forms – physical, psychological, racial violence…- but we want to visualize  concrete images – beating children, emotional blackmail, throwing out immigrants…)

4. Violence has its roots in desire:

We try to recognize that desire is the origin of the listed situations of violence.

Game: The present ( Type: emotional game. Aim: work on possession. N. of participants: more than 4. Place: open air or a room. Material: none . The person that coordinates the game is the only one that knows it.)

C.: I now propose you a game, it is called The Present : each of you gives  someone else a present, it has to be a valuable object or with an emotional charge ( at the end everyone receives and gives something ), everyone , when giving the object will say why it is so important for him/her and what he/she would feel if he/she lost it.
The object will be given back to the owners when I will pronounce the word “ possession”.
( The conductor will pronounce the word after finishing the Trust Game )

5. Desire posseses different degrees and forms. An internal progress is possible if the problem of suffering and desire is faced through “ internal meditation”.

C.: I invite you at following a guided experience, i.e.  a story written in the first person, even if it is necessary to clarify that this first person is not that of the story, but that of the reader. In this way the suggested images and situations help in creating an environment to treat personal themes that are being inserted by the person that follows the story. Moreover, in every guided experience a new perspective on how facing the conflictual theme is being proposed. This visualization of conflictual themes and of a possible  crucial escape way, make of the guided experiences  real  forms of dynamic meditation.
Then put yourself at ease, close your eyes, relax  muscles and let yourself be guided by images….

Guided experience: The repetition ( reading or recording) 

6. The desire ( “rougher are desires” ) causes violence, that is not circumscribed to the conscience of  individuals but pollutes the relation’s environment;

C.: In the guided experience in more than one point there is a reference to desìre: it talks about confused and contradictory desires that are  the origin  of the past, present and future failures , but it also talks about the “ strongest desire: getting out of that situation “that is repetitive and without sense.
In groups of 4 : Every participant describes a situation in which others are involved in his/her desires and on how this pollutes the relationhip with them in a violent way ( e.g. I desire that my sons do what I didn’t manage to do and I end by being authoritative, hot-tempered, etc..), if necessary, one helps the other in recognizing the relationship between desires  and the violence generated in those relationships.

Game : Throw yourself
Type: of expression, Aim: obtaining a feeling  of internal distension,  increasing trust, working as a team, N.of participants: 2  Place: Any
A participant  stands with his/her back turned to another paticipant that is distant as much as the length of his/her arms. He/ she opens the arms and let himself/herself throw backwards  without bending or moving the feet, the other catch him/her under the armpits. Repeat the game looking for a feeling  of complete trust and then exchange the roles.

C.: Do you recognize a relationship beetwen trust and distension?
And between tension and mistrust?
And among tension, mistrust and possession ( the objects are given back to their owners ).

7. Different forms of violence do exist besides the primary one, which is physical violence;

With the help of participants the different forms of violence listed above are being defined ( beating children = physical, emotional blackmail = psychological; etc. )

8. It is necesssary to follow simple rules to give an orientation to our lives  ( “ follow simple rules” ) : learning to bring peace, joi and especially hope.

C.: There’s a simple rule that since ancient times has been exposed in different forms in different civilisations, it’s called “ golden rule”, the new humanism takes it and says : TREAT OTHERS LIKE WE WANT TO BE TREATED.
Let’s now reconsider the situations you mentioned above, in which relationships are comprimised with violence due to desires, how would be your behaviour if it was inspired on this principle?
Exchange in groups of 4.

In conclusion: science and justice are necessary to human kind  to defeat pain; overcoming primitive desires cannot be disregarded in order to defeat mental suffering.

Reading of the text of the speech ( reading from the book – preferably – or from the attached or in the video version)

C.: Befor saying goodbye, are there any comments on today’s work?

Proposal of participation
Peace , Force and Joi for all of you.  
The Healing of Suffering 
Punta de Vacas, Mendoza, Argentina, May 4, 1969 

If you have come to listen to a man who it is thought transmits wisdom, you have mistaken your way, for true wisdom is not communicated through books or speeches—true wisdom is found in the depths of your consciousness, just as true love is found in the depths of your heart. If you have come at the urging of slanderers and hypocrites to listen to this man so that what you hear today may later be used against him, you have mistaken your way, because this man has not come here to ask anything of you or to use you, because he does not need you.
You are listening to a man who does not know the laws that rule the Universe, who is not privy to the laws of History, who is ignorant of the relationships that govern the peoples of the world. High in these mountains, far from the cities and their sick ambitions, this man addresses himself to your conscience. Over the cities, where each day is a struggle, a hope cut short by death, where love is followed by hate, where forgiveness is followed by revenge; over the cities of the people rich and poor; over the immense fields of humanity, a mantle of suffering and sorrow has fallen. You suffer when pain bites your body. You suffer when hunger seizes your body. But you suffer not only from your body’s immediate pain and hunger—you also suffer from the consequences of the diseases that afflict it. 
We must distinguish between two types of suffering. There is the suffering that occurs during illness and that recedes with the advance of science, just as hunger can recede if the empire of justice advances. There is also the suffering that does not depend on the sickness of your body but yet derives from that sickness: If you are disabled, if you cannot see, if you cannot hear, you suffer. But though such suffering derives from your body, or from the diseases of your body, that suffering is of your mind.
There is yet another kind of suffering that does not recede even with the advance of science or with the advance of justice. This type of suffering, which belongs strictly to your mind, retreats before faith, before joy in life, before love. You must understand that this suffering is always rooted in the violence that exists in your own consciousness. You suffer because you fear losing what you have, or because of what you have already lost, or because of what you desperately long to reach. You suffer because of what you lack, or because you fear in general. 
These, then, are the great enemies of humanity: fear of sickness, fear of poverty, fear of death, fear of loneliness. All these forms of suffering pertain to your mind, and all of them reveal your inner violence, the violence that is in your mind. Notice how that violence always stems from desire. The more violent a person is, the more gross that person’s desires. 
I would like to tell you a story that took place long ago.
There was once a traveler who had to undertake a long journey. He yoked his animal to a cart and began the journey to his faraway destination, a journey he had to complete within a certain length of time. He called the animal Necessity and the cart Desire; one wheel of the cart he called Pleasure, and the other he called Pain. Our traveler turned his cart sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, yet he never ceased moving toward his destiny. The faster the cart traveled, the faster turned the wheels of Pleasure and Pain, carrying as they did the cart of Desire and connected as they were by the same axle. But the journey was very long, and after a time our traveler grew bored. So he decided to decorate his cart, and he began to adorn it with all manner of beautiful things. But the more he embellished the cart of Desire with these ornaments, the heavier became the load for Necessity to pull. On the curves and steep hills of the road, the poor animal grew too exhausted to pull the cart of Desire. And where the road was soft, the wheels of Pleasure and Suffering became mired in the earth. 
One day, because the road was long and he was still very far from his destination, our traveler grew desperate. That night he decided to meditate on the problem, and in the midst of his meditation he heard the neighing of his old friend, Necessity. Comprehending the message, he arose very early the next morning and began to lighten the cart of its burden, stripping it of all its fine adornments. Then he set off once more toward his destination, with the animal Necessity pulling the cart at a brisk trot. Still, our traveler had already lost much time—time that was now irrecoverable. The next night he sat down again to meditate, and he realized, thanks to another message from his old friend, that now he had to undertake a task that was doubly difficult because it involved his letting go. At daybreak he sacrificed the cart of Desire. It is true that when he did so he lost the wheel of Pleasure, but then he also lost the wheel of Suffering. And so, abandoning the cart of Desire, he mounted the animal called Necessity and galloped on its back across the green fields until he reached his destiny. 
See how desire can trap you. But notice that there are desires of different qualities. There are cruder desires, and there are more elevated desires. Elevate desire, purify desire, surpass desire! In doing so, surely you will have to sacrifice the wheel of Pleasure—but you will also become free of the wheel of Suffering. 
Spurred by desire, the violence in a person does not simply remain like a sickness in the consciousness of that person—it acts in the world of other people and is exercised upon them. And do not think that when I talk of violence I am speaking only about the armed act of war, where some men destroy others. That is only one form of physical violence. 
There is also economic violence. Economic violence is the violence through which you exploit other people; economic violence occurs when you steal from another, when you are no longer a brother or sister to others but a bird of prey feeding upon them. 
There is also racial violence. Or do you think that you are not being violent when you persecute someone because that person is not of your own race? Do you think that you are not engaging in violence when you malign that person for being of a race different from your own? 
And there is religious violence: Do you think that you are not engaging in violence when you refuse work to, close your doors to, or dismiss a person, because that person does not share your religious beliefs? Do you believe that it is not violence when you use words of hate to build walls around other people, excluding them from your society, because they do not share your religious beliefs—isolating them within their families, segregating them and their loved ones, because they do not share your religion? 
There are other forms of violence that are imposed by the Philistine morality. You wish to impose your way of life upon another; you wish to impose your vocation upon another. But who has told you that you are an example that must be followed? Who has told you that you can impose a way of life because it pleases you? What makes your way of life a model, a pattern that you have the right to impose on others? This is another form of violence. 
Only inner faith and inner meditation can end the violence in you, in others, and in the world around you. All the other doors are false and do not lead away from this violence. This world is on the verge of exploding with no way to end the violence! Do not choose false doors. There are no politics that can solve this mad urge for violence. There is no political party or movement on the planet that can end the violence. Do not choose false doors that promise to lead away from the violence in the world.  I have heard that all over the world young people are turning to false doors to try to escape the violence and inner suffering. They turn to drugs as a solution. Do not choose false doors to try to end the violence. 
My brother, my sister—keep these simple commandments, as simple as these rocks, this snow, and this sun that bless us. Carry peace within you, and carry it to others. My brother, my sister—if you look back in history, you will see the human being bearing the face of suffering. Remember, even as you gaze at that suffering face, that it is necessary to move forward, and it is necessary to learn to laugh, and it is necessary to learn to love.
To you, my brother and sister, I cast this hope—this hope of joy, this hope of love—so that you elevate your heart and elevate your spirit, and so that you do not forget to elevate your body.

1. After establishing a difference between physical pain, with its consequences and  mental suffering, Silo declares that physical pain can be defeated through the progresses  of science and justice, mental suffering instead cannot be eliminated by any progress of that kind;

2. Three are the ways that conduct to suffering: the way of perception, the way of memory and that of imagination;

3. Suffering indicates a condition of violence;

4. Violence has its roots in desire:

5. Desire posseses different degrees and forms. An internal progress is possible if the problem of suffering and desire is faced through “ internal meditation”.

6. The desire (“rougher are desires” ) causes violence, that is not circumscribed to the conscience of  individuals but pollutes the relation’s environment;

7. Different forms of violence do exist besides the primary one, which is physical violence;

8. It is necesssary to follow simple rules to give an orientation to our lives  (“ follow simple rules”): learning to bring peace, joi and especially hope.