The End Of Suffering

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. - Zen quote

Why do we suffer? Some would say, It 's the bane of human existence. Some would say it's the life of punishment we earned for something that Eve did with an apple a long time ago. Some would say that it is God's way of testing our faith (remember the story of Job in the bible?)

One of my favorite spiritual teachers, Byron Katie, who cuts right through the dogma with laser clarity and insight, says, the only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark. You can try and try, and in the end, the cat will look up at you and say, "Meow." Wanting reality to be different than it is is hopeless. You can spend the rest of your life trying to teach a cat to bark.

Why in the world do we argue with "what is", why do we cling with stubborn tenacity to our preferences for how life should and could be and resist everything that shows up that does not match our desires. To resist life's twists and turns that deviate from our preferences is the way of suffering; clearly counterproductive to the way of peace and enduring happiness. Wisdom implores us embrace life on its terms, with the equanimity of one who chose all that arises.

This is fundamental understanding in Buddhism. The Buddha's first discourse following his enlightenment contained the Four Noble Truths, the first of which stated that life is, or leads to, suffering (dukkha) in one way or another. Our suffering is said to be caused by craving or attachments to worldly pleasures of all kinds, clinging to a certain sense of self, or to the things, people, or circumstances that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness.

Jesus taught from the same well of wisdom, imploring us to avoid judgments based on appearances, dualistic thinking, and clinging to things of the world. Jesus noted that rain falls on the just and the unjust, that a man was born blind not as karmic comeuppance, rather to bear witness to a greater reality through him. In this greater reality, (that he called the kingdom of heaven), we will find a lasting treasure that does not deflate or disappoint.

Buddha did not leave us without an answer to the inevitable suffering of the human condition. The Fourth Noble Truth says there is a way out of suffering, a path to help us develop insight into the nature of things and to eradicate greed, hatred, and delusion.