Suffering is caused by attaching negative thoughts and stories to our emotions. Attachment leads to suffering, too. By constantly revisiting events in the past or worrying about outcomes of events not yet happened can give rise to suffering. We don't like change and we never want good things to come to an end. We don't want people to end: we have become attached to them and depend upon them.
However, all things end. Nothing is permanent: people die, places change, our pets live even shorter lives. Gardens grow and die. Yet people seek to control their environment and the people they love. Being alone is anathema to them. The more they seek to control the more they suffer because nothing lasts.
Mindfulness involves the acceptance of impermanence. Loss of these attachments be they people or objects is part of the natural scheme of things. Some people don't like to be alone and they suffer as a result.
An acceptance of impermanence removes the need to avoid endings. We will all suffer personal loss through bereavement, a relationship coming to an end or any other ending for that matter. We have been brought up to not accept suffering so we try to reject it. By facing up to reality: that life involves the cessation of all things and suffering does exist, we can have a peaceful mindset. Feeling that life is unjust and that we are victims dissipate and we accept life with all its faults and imperfections. That is the joy of Mindfulness.
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