"Blessed are they that mourn! For they shall be comforted". This is a provoking statement. As a rule, we don't like to mourn and don't consider it to be a blessing. We like to laugh and to feel good about ourselves. Could it mean that Jesus denied our rights to positive emotions?

Some religious teachers say that we should always mourn over our sins. They encourage believers to meditate on their failures and shortcomings, realizing their unworthiness before God. But this doctrine becomes less and less popular - not because people in our days are more "wicked" than centuries ago, but because now they are more self-aware and self-reliant. They've learned to think for themselves and cannot be so easily indoctrinated into sin-consciousness.

All the successful creators and achievers believe in themselves, at least in the area of their achievements. Using the terminology of Ralph Emerson, they believe in their "genius". This is why many of talented people were unwilling to accept a doctrine of human sinfulness. On the other hand, clericals often accused them in "rebellion".

But if we are not to encouraged to mourn over our sins, what this statement is talking about?

This beatitude brings our attention to the truth that in order to be happy we need something more than superficial optimism. Mourning is the fact of human life, and we should deal with it from the spiritual and enlightened standpoint.

Among those who accepted the basic tenets of positive thinking, sometimes there is a tendency to cover up their negative feelings. Such people are proud to demonstrate optimism and enthusiasm, but it is just a mask they wear in vain attempts to fool others and even themselves. They don't admit their problems and don't look for constructive ways of resolution, as if it would cause these challenges to disappear.

But the Universe cannot be fooled. Suppressed feelings often manifest themselves as sicknesses, accidents, and troubles of other kind. This is why we need not to suppress, but to transform them - and, first of all, we need to learn lessons which they bring to us.

Nothing happens without a reason. Pain indicates that somewhere and somehow we thought and acted in ignorance and developed a mental pattern which doesn't agree with God's laws of being. We did not listen to the still small voice within which suggested us to deal away with it. So, now we have to be brought to our sound mind through pain.

As Emmet Fox wrote, "There is really no need for man to have trouble, because if he will only seek God first, the trouble need never come. He always has the choice of learning by spiritual unfoldment or of learning by painful experience, and it is his own fault if he makes the latter choice".

Don't be afraid of your initial emotional reaction. Don't be afraid of pain if you feel it. It is a sign that recovery processes are taking place. Look up to God's enlightenment which will bring deeper understanding of your life - and freedom. But unwillingness to face pain and resistance to pain only prolongs it.

We might be comforted, knowing that pain is but temporary. It won't stay with us forever. It is a violation of the universal harmony, and it won't be necessary anymore once the harmony is restored. We will be truly comforted not by covering up of our pain, but by learning from it, and by transcending negative consciousness which caused it.

(to be continued)