Q: What is the cause of suffering?
Today, let us understand the cause of suffering. Buddha said that life is suffering. Birth, growth, youth, old age, disease, everything is suffering. How can you say that? What is suffering? There is pain in life at various points in time and we get pain.
For example, Birth pain is there when the child is born. The mother goes through tremendous pain during childbirth. It is called birth pain. At various points in time, we go through pain. Pain can be physical, or it can be psychological. Pain is a part of life. What does pain signify? Pain signifies that there is something important happening in your life and you need to give attention to that. If there is no pain then you will not give attention.
For example, You hurt your finger and started bleeding. Because there is pain, you will notice it and try to put on a bandage. The pain is nature’s way of telling you, “Look! there is a problem, address it” or “Look! Something significant is happening. The childbirth is significant so pay attention to that”. Pain is inevitable in life. But the pain gets converted into suffering when you start reliving the pain psychologically.
Somebody calls you donkey. Definitely, it is a pain, and you get hurt. But, if you keep on recollecting that, after many years also, and relieving the pain, it becomes suffering. Pain is natural in life. But suffering is optional. Suffering is your choice. The day you stop reliving the pain, forgive the person who has hurt you, you will be free from suffering.
I will tell you one story. There was a guy called Mulla Nasiruddin. He was a philosopher in the Middle east. He was going with his friend in a car. It was a very nice road with a lot of traffic. This Mulla Nasiruddin used to jump from his seat every time when there was honking from a truck driver. His friend asked him, “Why are you jumping? It is alright. I am driving safely; nothing will happen to you”. Mulla said, “You don’t understand my problem”. Mulla’s friend asks Mulla ‘What is the problem?’. Mulla replies, “Twenty years ago, one truck driver ran away with my wife”. Then his friend said, “So what? You seem to be happy”. Mulla said, “I am afraid that the truck driver may come back and return my wife”. So, after twenty years also, he is suffering.
The pain is one time. The suffering is every day. The suffering is because of your impressions. Suffering is because you have taken something into your life and into your memory. Why does suffering happen? There is one small story which I will tell you.
There was one person who was walking on a dark night. There was a well and he didn’t see that well. He fell into the well. He clung to a rope. He was very happy that he was holding onto a rope. Because he couldn’t see anything as it was dark. Then, he opened his mouth and something sweet started falling into his mouth. That was honey. He was enjoying, “Wow! What a nice life. I wish, the whole life is like this”. Because it was dark, he was not able to, really see.
Inside that well, there were so many Crocodiles. What he was holding onto was a snake. Honey was drizzling from the honeycomb. One honeybee bite and that’s all. He will fall into the well. If the snake moves, then he is gone. So, what we are doing is that we are holding on to a lot of temporary things in life. It is a very nice experience.
We don’t understand that any of these temporary experiences can move or change at any point in time. Holding on to the temporary things in life, thinking that it is permanent, is really the cause of suffering. If you understand, something is temporary then you will not get attached to that. We get attached to something by thinking that it is permanent. Nothing in life can be permanent. Everything in life is temporary.
Holding on to something which is temporary by thinking that it is permanent, is really the cause of suffering. Otherwise, it can give pain. But not cause you suffering. Pain is part of life. Suffering is an option for you.
Pranams
Prabhuji
References:
Self-Knowledge Talks Talk 31 Cause of Suffering 10th May, 2016
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BybdYqxCzTdmY1FBeVZXaFpiZkE/view?usp=sharing