”Trust & Relief”

I have often been asked why Buddhism seems to focus on suffering. My answer to that is that none of us showed up here to find relief from our overwhelming and ever present, persistent joy. So, we focus on finding the relief from our suffering, discomfort, and dissatisfaction not to replace suffering with joy but to find a state of ease and perpetual Okay-ness. Truth number one is that suffering, discomfort & dissatisfaction exist in our experience even though we find a myriad of ways to distract ourselves from it. Truth number two is that there is a cause for this experience of discomfort and the cause for that very discomfort is our attachment (human attachment). Truth number three is that there is a possibility of relieving that state of dissatisfaction. Truth number four is that by opening our minds and hearts to awakened awareness we can and will see the attachment as a human reaction and let go of our strangle hold on the reactive fear that is the nature of attachment. There is no suffering, discomfort or dissatisfaction that cannot be relieved by this methodology. Turning directly toward our discomfort is simply to identify that we are experiencing a state of unrest regarding our individual experience. Once we have identified the discomfort, we can seek the cause of it through insight and patient inquiry. Then and only then can you effectively utilize the wisdom and compassion achieved through that exploration to relieve the tight grip of attachment causing this struggle. There is not simply one issue to be relieved. Each of us has a lifetime of conditioning that has compounded our unrest and developed in despair, anxiety, and depression. The good news is that once you have released your grasp on your attachment mindfully and attentively then the path is paved for continued relief.