Dukkha: Suffering of the Mundane

Dukkha: The suffering of mundane life.

And we all have it.

This is important of late because I know there are often times the need to see our own suffering as unique. And, in it's own way, it is. It's yours. It's the combination of your losses, insecurities, experiences and unmet desires.

You are not alone.

Dukkha is also the reminder that we all suffer, to some degree. We all have some anxiety, something depressing or frustrating us, some burning want that we can never seem to attain.

We each deal with it in different ways. Dancing, performance, alcohol, drugs, socializing, not socializing, reading, writing, screaming into a pillow, naked ice cream wrestling with friends.

... You get the picture.

We can each find our own path away from suffering and toward happiness.

Where things become problematic, is when we take this Dukkha out on others, and make it their suffering. This is not okay. Yes, there are a million excuses as to why we should be allowed, because of our unique suffering, but they remain just that, excuses. Taking out your frustrations upon those around you is no longer your suffering, it's abuse.

Even the Zen Master overcame something to become that way. We may never know if they lost their wife and two children in a blazing car wreck, followed it with five years of depression and alcoholism before finding their Zen journey. We don't know. We can't assume the happy, successful person doesn't struggle with demons they never let the world see.

The point of this is, dealing with these demons and moving forward, even though it may be terrifying at the time, it leads to you being stronger, healthier and happier in the long run.
As someone who pulled themselves out of years of suicidal depression, and that's the nice, happy, abridged version; I promise this is true.

Our suffering becomes like this familiar, comfortable blanket that we keep on us, because it keeps us safe. It keeps us from venturing forth and potentially failing at bettering ourselves. It makes us always right, because as we wrap that blanket of excuses and fear tighter around us, it reinforces that there is no way to change our situation.

And that blanket slowly strangles us.

I say this, not to be mean or callous. I say this, because I hate to see people suffering. And the whole point of Dukkha is that much of our suffering is self made. We breathe, we challenge, we move forward, we grow. Yes, we fall, and hurt, and fail, and shatter along the way. But we heal, we observe, we learn, and we grow some more.

I challenge each of you to find some way to overcome your Dukkha today and this week. Do some quick research for ways others have overcome your particular suffering, and try it. And if it doesn't work, try something else. Keep trying.

The growing pains hurt less in the long run than the pain your feeling now stretched out forever.

Be good to yourselves, and be good to each other.

~Cheers