The Boat of Pain
Reflections on four noble truths of Shakyamuni
What do we do when we come to this world? We cry our heads off, we feel that we are coming to this world to experience dissatisfaction and pain.
We are not sure what dissatisfaction we will go through. First, dissatisfactions are tiny- hunger and cold. Our body grows and dissatisfactions grow with us. It makes us angry and confused. The little episodes of happiness go away and it makes us feel even more angry and confused. We start to look for the answers. Most of us give up. We blame others for our suffering, we don’t like to accept responsibility for our own actions. We don’t want to face our mortality, we trick ourselves, we play the game of living in the past and the future, ignoring the painful present. We ignore the pain of others, we don’t see the suffering of fellow beings. As soon as we realise that others are in the same boat as we are, that we swim in the same river of pain, we will accept our own suffering.