The reason the spiritual journey can seem so long is that the ego has invented its own “positive” which is a defense against discovering the truth of who you are. If the world was just a painful experience, you would quickly feel that you have had enough of the world. The “positive” was invented by the ego to keep you trapped in duality. To only go for the positive without understanding the ego tricks doesn’t really bring release. The ego has pushed many beliefs out of awareness and it doesn’t want these to be remembered because it will be seen for the puff of nothingness that it is. Jesus says in A Course in Miracles, “It is impossible to seek for pleasure through the body and not find pain.” T-19.IV.B.12:1 If the world was nothing but pain you could drop it like a hot potato.