To Live Is To Suffer
Let me explain. If everything were sweet, the word sweet would not have meaning and by all means it would cease to even exist. We create words to describe something that either exists, as in objects that we identify by our senses or for feelings or things that we feel or imagine. Exists or not, these are things that need to be communicated, conveyed and this can only be achieved by there being words for it. Everything that we have a word for or anything that we acknowledge, we do so because the other thing that contrasts the thing in question exists. We acknowledge breathing because not breathing has its significant meaning. Imagine a monochrome world, for instance, think of the whole world and everything in it with the colour orange. Do you then think we would have a name for the colour orange? We won’t because there would be no necessity to refer to this colour since there was no other colour in the imagined monochrome world to differentiate it from. We have the word ‘happy’ because there exists so many in the world that are “not happy”. And so in such a world, and I don’t mean it should or could be any other way for our world can only exist in contrasts, what would be this world without contrasts? Try to imagine such a world. It would be lifeless. A planet of dust? Of lifeless water? Life can only exist when something lifeless also exists around it. We can only live as long as somewhere someone can stop living. The pain is not an anomaly, it is, if you give it a thought, necessary. It is a fool’s quest to run away from it. And really, where will you run away to? To what end? What is a world without pain? Who lives without pain? Or put another way, what do we call someone who has a life of no pain? Dead? Yes, only the dead are without pain. Only the dead could have no pain. The rest of us must have it if we are to live.
Someone in abject pain often says how they wish they would like a day of no pain. I understand the place from where this is coming. But give it a thought. When does the pain end, completely cease to exist, vanish and become zero? When you die! Without death, there is no escape from pain. The only way then is to deal with pain, of all kinds. Find solutions, find why pain exists, and study your pain. Lately, people have gotten into the habit of not discussing pain at all. It’s a fool’s quest to think not talking would somehow make pain go away. Some believe talking about death for instance is akin to inviting it. It bloody is not. Many fear getting into the sea because they fear water and they harbor this fear without ever going to a water body. Those who regularly go into sea for whatever reasons, don’t do so carelessly. Going into the sea often, they have by now understood where to go and where not to dive, what to do and what should be avoided at all costs, what is safe risk and what is fool’s risk. It’s not like these are superhumans or they have no fear of the sea. They do. But because they understand the terrain, because they have dealt with the question of what makes the sea dangerous, they have devised habits that keep them safe from that danger.
If you don’t want to die by drowning then go learn to swim. Death comes to all of us for death is the only certainty in all our lives. No one can escape from it. But there are ways and habits to push it far away, to help ourselves from dying like a fool. Pain or suffering could drive you to death. Our brain cannot function or reason when it is in such pain. Like how it doesn’t function well when you are hungry. Or for that matter horny. And so it is important to think in advance and plan a backup when your brain is functional. It’s like planning for volcanic eruptions or floods or earthquakes when there’s no sign of such a calamity on the horizon. Because you can only buy a first aid kit when the mountain has yet to erupt.
To live then is to suffer. To be successful is not to not suffer at all but to overcome the feeling of suffering.
