Life is Suffering.

Life is suffering, as Buddha says. That’s not pessimistic but it is a fundamental truth of nature. We are finite. Lifespan is bounded. You are a certain height, weight, colour, intelligent, mentally ill, predisposition to cancer. These vulnerabilities are not flaw of nature. These are conditions for your existence. We are what we are.

Right now, something absolutely horrible may not be happening to you. There may not be something particularly horrible happening to you at the moment, but there is a high possibility that one of your family member is having a horrible phase. If not now, it is highly probable sure it will happen in the future. To know this frees you. Life can’t be conducted without suffering.

When you are playing a card game, you are dealt a hand of cards. Then what do you do? You play the best you can for the hand that you are dealt. That’s all you can do. And that strategy most times may not be a winning one. And that’s ok. Because people don’t always win. sometimes we loose and sometimes we loose painfully, sometimes painfully and unjustly. That’s not the point. The point is you don’t have a better strategy. It is better to take responsibility for the hand you have been dealt.

How to conduct yourself in the face of suffering?

Pick up your damn suffering and bear it. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. Try to reduce the suffering. Stand up so that people can rely on you. Minimise the suffering if you can’t transcend it.

So, what is your calling?

• Stop unnecessary suffering
• Remember that the world is always desperately short of people who can clearly think and speak
• There is more suffering in the world than there should be and you can do something about that.

And may be if you live with above principles, when you are 80 you look back at your life and see that there is less suffering in the world because of you and it was worth living your life.