Suffering

A very well known part of Buddhist wisdom is the idea that ‘life is suffering’. In fact, the word Buddhists use is actually 'dukkha' which may be more closely translated to ‘unsatisfactory’. But, I am not actually going to talk about Buddhism as such here (after going to a Buddhist centre for over a year now I still know very little about the ‘religion’), but about my own personal feelings on this idea.

 

When I first picked up a book on Buddhism and read those words ‘life is suffering’, I honestly felt this enormous sense of relief. Like, really? It’s not just me then? I guess the thing is with suffering is that we tend to get so wrapped up in it. We concentrate so much on the pain itself and the perceived cause of it that we seem to block out the rest of the world entirely. I was amazed a while back when I met up with a friend of mine (who was visiting from uni) and she was having money troubles. I was pretty ill, as I often am, and all she did was talk about money and how lucky I was because I had some. She was genuinely jealous of me!

 

At the time I was shocked. How could she not see the pain I was in? But then I realised that we all do this to extent really. We focus so much on our particular cause of suffering that we become rather blinded to everyone else’s.

 

But, it need not be this way. For me, to use the words ‘life is suffering’ is to come to some form of acceptance. You will feel pain. You will have problems. So the question is: how do you choose to deal with them? Will you let them dominate you by focusing on them, fighting with them, blaming friends and family and life and God? Or will you let your own suffering open your heart to others - for they are suffering too.