Where to start?

If one is to attempt to give another directions on how to get somewhere, it is first necessary to know where that person's is starting from. Leading people out of their suffering is no different. Everyone of us who suffers does so out of a sense that things are other than they ought to be. The most accurate description of this fundamental cause of suffering that I've yet heard comes from The Four Nobel Truths given by The Buddha and is said to be "attachment" or clinging to a particular sense of being as "the Self". To eliminate suffering, Buddhism teaches that it is first necessary to attain a particular understanding of the fundamental workings of existence and what our relationship is to it. This is where I'd like to start.

I've heard many people's explanations of why they think things appear the way they do, all of which are predicated on various beliefs about the framework of existence. Although those frameworks can sometimes seem very different, I've noticed that everyone who suffers has at the core of their framework a belief that there is a separation of themselves from all that is. If one is to truly escape suffering or attachment, they first have to be willing to change their concept of how the universe works to one that is more expedient to achieving a sense of oneness. Easy right?

I suggest to people that come to me for a way out their suffering to try and see the world as a play in which God (I use the term God as synonymous with The Universe) is playing hide-and-go seek with himself. Starting there, we can explain the phenomenon of consciousness as the effect of God's being aware of or finding himself. The illusion of separateness we're in happens because in order for him to play the game, it is first necessary for God to be purposely unaware of his full nature. Being unaware of his entirety is what makes the game fun. Many people are confused as to why we can know that everything is God and yet we still can't see God. That we can't see or know God in his fullness proves to me that we indeed are him. It's impossible for us as individual manifestations of consciousness to know God in his entirety in the same way that we can't see our own eye or stab a needle with its own point. Starting with that basic premise seems much more expedient to seeing through the illusion of separation than what is presented by traditional Judeo-Christian/ Islamic worldviews.

Changing that basic framework is more difficult depending on the person's point of origin and how firmly they cling to it. For instance, a person who believes the Fundamentalist Christian point of view cannot hope to be released from their suffering because that particular view places them outside God. Theirs is a framework in which they are the creation of an omnipotent being and only by obeying his commands will one be allowed into eternal paradise. In fairness to Christianity, I don't believe Jesus intended his message to be interpreted this way. I do believe that Jesus was a Buddha or Bodhisattva. There are also certainly Christians who have a more inclusive and non-judgemental take on Jesus' teachings but unfortunately it seems that the majority are leaning towards a more fire and brimstone interpretation.

So in summation, what I feel is the most expedient view of reality a person can adopt to end their suffering has in it the following basic premises:
1. We are all manifestations of the universe rather than its creations.
2. What we view as separation or "Self" is merely an illusion.

Starting with that fundamental base, it becomes easier to build the rest of the framework in such a way so as not to cause attachment or suffering.