A reader from the Netherlands asks:

Teachers and books about spirituality always say that human life is suffering. I don’t feel I am suffering. What is this suffering that we all supposedly feel?

When I first came to spiritual practice, I didn’t know I was in a state of suffering. I thought I was enjoying life and just looking for more. I had a lot to learn about myself and Reality!

For instance, if you are enjoying your relationships, your job, your kids or anything else you have in your life right now, imagine that something is taken away. How will you feel?

If you are at a party, and someone you don’t like arrives, do you feel tense? If your boss gets mad at you, do you freak out or lash back? If someone dies, do you grieve for years and years? If you get sick, do you feel victimized or scared?

This is one way of looking at human suffering. At every moment, our so-called happiness is dependent on having or not having some things and circumstances. We try very hard to hold onto the things we think will make us feel good, and we push away the things we don’t like. We live in a near-constant state of defensive anxiety, and much of our life is spent trying to avoid recognizing our fear. This is suffering.

Another way of looking at suffering is that most people are experiencing compulsion ninety-nine percent of the time. We have to do things and have things a certain way. We define ourselves very narrowly. We have habitual emotions, activities and reactions to life. We can’t stop doing, planning and thinking.

Once you get a little bit into a spiritual practice, you realize how much of a slave you are to your habits of body, emotion and mind. This is what happened to me. I thought I was a free-wheeling kind of person. Then I began to notice all the ways of feeling, thinking and acting over which I had surprisingly little control.

The root ignorance—our belief that we are separate individuals—is the basis for all suffering. We are firmly convinced that we are born as individuals and that we die. So we feel cut off from our essence. We are lonely, and we are afraid of death.

We have to recognize our own suffering if we are to live an authentic life and Self-realize. This doesn’t mean that we cannot enjoy anything. Enjoyment of the creation is always available to us. But as practitioners, we have to deal with our condition of feeling separate and scared. This is what practice is for: realizing authentic enjoyment and realizing the root of suffering both.

In Ma’s love,

Shambhavi

Posted by Shambhavi on June 30th, 2009 | Explore More! Tags: Suffering