There is So Much Suffering in the World
It’s true. As the Buddhists say, to live is to suffer. They also say there is a path to freedom from suffering.
But it’s true — the world is filled with suffering, inequity, negativity, anger, and the general messiness of societal human life. Part of me feels like no amount of meditation, breathwork, yoga poses, votes, marches, or mindful conversations can fix all the problems we have on systemic and interpersonal levels.
Too often, we’re negative to each other. We become jealous of other peoples’ wins. We silently smile for other peoples’ failures. We loathe the happiness of others because it amplifies our sadness. We tear down our friends because we want them to feel as low as we feel.
On the surface, we’re all different and unique. We all have our own way of seeing the world based on our experiences, upbringings, joys, traumas, educations, relationships, heartbreaks, successes, and so on. But below the surface, if we strip away our jobs, personalities, hobbies, opinions, beliefs, faiths, clothes, social statuses, even our physical bodies and our thinking minds — we are all the same. We all come from the same source wisdom.
I’ve learned that we’re so much more than our thoughts; we just have thoughts. We’re so much more than our actions; we just take actions. Beneath all of that, I believe we’re all divine in some way.
“It’s okay to think you’re God as long as everybody else is included”
What if we saw every person for the divine essence that they truly are? From the homeless person on the side of the road to the business executives to people praying in temples. What if, when we reacted to “bad” people, instead of thinking negative things about them, we could shift to “I see you suffering, I wish you compassion.”
The only true antidote to suffering is compassion, and so through compassion we can heal the world. Cruelty, anger, abuse, hatred — I believe all of these things are simply manifestations of suffering. So then my only choice becomes to pray for compassion.
I’m not excusing hatred or negative actions; I’m just trying to find a way through it. We can’t fight hate with hate. We’ve learned that many times throughout history. But we can fight suffering with compassion.
Often I wish every single being on the planet could take a deep breath and chant OM together. Maybe then we would have a few seconds of true peace, of Shanti.
