About Suffering & How To Be Free From Suffering

Many people know what is suffering by personally experiencing the suffering that is happening in the body and in the mind. But not many people know why are they suffering nor know how to be free from suffering, that’s why we are experiencing suffering. Or else, there won’t be any suffering.

And to know why do we have suffering and how to be free from suffering, is the path of wisdom, the path of self-realization.

Usually it is when we are not satisfied with certain things that are happening in our body and the mind, as well as not satisfied with the happenings in the world, we will be experiencing unhappiness or suffering. We will try to avoid unhappiness and are constantly looking for happiness. When we couldn’t avoid unhappiness and couldn’t attain happiness, we will be in suffering. We suffer when we have fears and worries. We suffer when we have anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, arrogance, and ungratified desires. We suffer when we don’t understand the truth, when we couldn’t let go our attachment towards all the things, experiences, affairs, and happenings (all kinds of names and forms), when we couldn’t accept the truth as it is and when we are lost in ignorance (not knowing what is the existence and function of the body and mind or what is 'I', what is real and unreal, what is the meanings of life existence, and what is true happiness).

But the basic suffering that everybody has is the inevitable suffering of having this selfless impermanent limited and conditional body and mind that is solely depending on the selfless availability and support of elements, food, and energy to be existing and functioning in this world of names and forms. This physical body and the mind (the function of perception, cognition, intellectual learning, reasoning, and understanding, ceaseless and restless thoughts, feelings, and sensations, discrimination of good and bad, positive and negative, comfortable and not comfortable, likes and dislikes, desire and don't desire, craving and aversion) is constantly experiencing or undergoing impermanence (birth, growth, changes, decay, illness, injury, weakness, stiffness, aging, and death). The physical body also has to go through endless hunger, thirst, heat, cold, pain, and discomforts.

We suffer because we think and believe that 'we are not free' being bound by the cause and effect of the past accumulated 'good and bad karma' that derived from our inevitable ceaseless generation of thoughts, actions, and speech. We suffer when we couldn’t satisfy or gratify our boundless cravings and desires. We suffer when our mind is restless and the desires are never ending. We suffer when we are being controlled or over-powered by our own selfish ego, our limited intellect, our desires, our likes and dislikes, our craving and aversion, and our distracted random thought activities. We suffer because we think and believe that 'we are not free' being bound by the 'phenomena' of 'the wheel of birth and death' or 'reincarnation', undergoing ceaseless and endless existences of forming and deforming, togetherness and separation, disturbance and loneliness, restlessness and boredom, happiness and unhappiness, have and don’t have, want and don’t want, meaninglessness and emptiness, frustration and disappointment, and all the impurities in the mind that are disturbing our state of mind unceasingly. Due to all these 'phenomena', we couldn’t have peace and at rest even for a few moments. We repeatedly swaying back and forth from feeling good, positive, and energetic to feeling bad, negative, and exhausted. We are lost in confusion, doubt, and indecision.

We thought that it is the things and happenings out there that are causing us unhappiness and suffering. But the truth is, it is our own perception and cognition of the mind functioning under the influence of ignorance, that is causing all the unhappiness and suffering in us. All the things and happenings out there have no intentions or qualities to make us happy or unhappy, to be good or not good, to make us suffering or not suffering.

Until we know what is going on in our own mind, then we will know what is the cause of all these restlessness, disturbance, unpeacefulness, painful sorrow, unhappiness – suffering. If we know the cause of suffering, we will know how to free ourselves from the bondage of suffering.

When we know what is suffering, the cause of suffering, and the path of the end of suffering, we need to practice sincerely in ourselves the knowledge or wisdom that can free us from suffering. Then we can be free from suffering. Just by having the knowledge but without exercising it practically will not free us from suffering.

Start from now, at this present moment.

Let go of the past and the future.

Accept the truth as it is.

See the impermanence in everything inside and outside of us.

Practice acceptance, letting go, and non-attachment, from moment to moment.

Detach from what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste, what we feel, and what we think. Letting go all the thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Stop labeling them as good and bad, comfortable and  uncomfortable, deserving and undeserving. Stop generating reactions of like and dislike, craving and aversion towards all these impermanent names and forms, colours, shapes, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, sensations, feelings, emotions, memories, imaginations, and thoughts, or thinking.

Detach from all the dualities of names and forms.

Go beyond all the positive and negative, good and bad, comforts and discomforts, likes and dislikes, craving and aversion.

Stop identifying with the body and the mind as 'I'. We are not this body and this mind. This body and this mind are not ours and they are not us. But identify ourselves as the silent awareness or consciousness that is witnessing all the phenomena that is happening within and without our body and the mind. It doesn’t matter if these phenomena are something “good” or something “not good”, learn not to attach unto them and not being disturbed, influenced, or affected by them.

Very soon, our mind will calm down and be at peace. When our mind is calmed and at peace, we will know Thyself, and know the truth of all kinds of names and forms that is already in us all the time.

This is the practice of meditation or contemplation every moment in daily life regardless of whether we are in action or inaction. Constantly detaching from the desirable and undesirable experiences or what is happening now, the past experiences or memories, the future imaginations, the thoughts, the feelings and emotions, and the sensations. Be at the present moment, from moment to moment.

There is no meaning, if we did a lot of “meditation practice”, or "yoga asana and pranayama practice", or “cleansing exercises”, or “chanting and prayer”, or “charity”, or “vegetarianism”, or “non-harming”, or “studying the scriptures”, or “renounce from everything”, but when come to our daily life, we are lost and confused, being disturbed and affected by our own ego and all the phenomena that is happening within and without our body, and drowning in ceaseless dissatisfaction, disappointment, fear, worry, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, pride, arrogance, ignorance, frustration, and unhappiness.

Stop looking out for happiness. Look within ourselves. It is always there.

It is neither happiness nor unhappiness. It is free from the sense of happiness and unhappiness, and all kinds of duality.

May we all be free from suffering.