Dukkha

“Restless souls"  we’re often being alluded to, by the wise ones nor those who perceive life at a different angle. It is one of the hardest tasks man can perform, to rest; not to simply visit the land of nod, but to rest by relaxing your body and mind. We live in constant depression of bludgeoning ourselves with our inextricable past and immerse ourselves in anxiety owing to our enormous obsession of the future. The world, has become such a complicated place enmeshed by frivolous turmoil and tumult.

No man desires to be a lodestone to unfortunate events, adversities nor bereavements; simply because we have knowledge of the emotional and mental pain of losing someone nor something that we’re emotionally attached to. I often wrestle the dilemma of concluding whether life is a live motion picture filled with humorous lessons nor it is just a simple colossal paradox. We seek a life that will ensure that we’re sempiternally at ease yet we focus, if not all, most of our efforts and focus on eschewing the things that put our souls at a state of unease. We want good things yet we do not want bad things to happen to us. When those undesired events nor changes occur in our lives, we also focus most of efforts nor focus on moaning nor what the modern man would often refer to as “bitching”. “Why bad things happen to good people?” we often bludgeon our subconscious minds with such rhetorical questions. However, the irrefutable fact is that not bad things happen to good people; all things happen to all people. When we get injured nor get a fracture, we lose our favorite objects nor humans, we lose jobs, we lose profit nor business, we lose followers on social media, we fail our tests nor exams, we get evicted for not defaulting on rent payment, etc. It is usual for mortal humans to moan about their adversities; most would often utter “Why me?”

One thing bad about memory is that it keeps even the memories that we seek to erase nor sempiternally discard. Skepticism, most of the time is impelled by a previous unpleasant experience nor unpleasant word of mouth about that particular commitment you are about to make. After all, life is about commitments. We contemporaneously consciously and unconsciously nor subconsciously make a myriad of commitments, as humans. Church, organizations, work, hustle, our dreams, business, relationships, hobbies, being alive, etc. I do not intend to digress; however, I seek to elucidate the subtle irrefutable fact that life is all about commitments. We often fear falling in love with the new person we’ve met in our lives owing to our unpleasant past romantic relationships or due to what our heartbroken, pessimistic friends told us about love, we fear attempting to finish our course, subsequent to failing a previous attempt, with the belief that history could repeat itself, we fear investing for the future owing to the poorman’s Charles Ponzis we’ve came across, who gave us a definition of “investing” which is utterly disparate from the one which is generally known, etc. Or the case may also be that we fear investing owing to have witnessed victims of poorman’s Charles Ponzi being fleeced, nor eschew buying from black street vendors because the western market believes that the products that are being sold nor their place of work are utterly unhygienic and could be a lodestone to bacteria, viruses and emanate all kinds of ailments, etc. This is to elucidate the fact that I’ve mentioned previously that skepticism can be impelled by either actual experiences nor theoretical knowledge. It is easier to assume the worst nor anticipate the worst for your new experience, relationship, career, health etc. All because of your unpleasant past experiences. This type of thinking is what attracts the dis-ease; our souls become utterly dissatisfied when we use the time we’ve been offered to live, to blame ourselves nor external factors for our unpleasant past nor to be engulfed by anxiety owing to the mysterious future, in lieu of living.

As much as we worry nor stress about the future, we also have another kind of dis-ease, which is the emotional attachment to pleasant experiences nor to be devoutly mentally married to the idea of sempiternal fun, happiness nor contentment. Our enormous desire for jubilation and freedom is what subtly perpetuates this dis-ease. We try to escape from reality so much that our idea of happiness has become nothing but a chimerical world where all people are peaceful, immersed in sufficiency nor excess, where everyone is in a sempiternal good mood; in fact our idea of utter jubilation is anything consanguineous to Paradise nor what the Holy Bible often refer to as The Promised Land. We are so emotionally attached to our careers so much that we would despair if we lose them; hence, we wake up early every morning, eschewing traffic just to perform what is expected of us in our respective careers. We are so emotionally attached so much to the people we often deem objects of our affection; we reply to texts within seconds, we cancel other commitments we have just to ameliorate the commitment we have with them in fear of what would happen to us emotionally and mentally if we would lose our beloved. We frivolously spend our money on entertainment to distract us from the harsh reality of life; we can even spend all our money on it if it means we’ll get the elongated high we need from entertainment pills. 

“Dukkha” is a Buddhist concept which is usually translated to “pain", “unhappiness”, “unsatisfactoriness" nor “suffering”. 

We should strive to master our minds and be in control of our thoughts. Happiness and utter ease are found at the other side, after we have conquered “Dukkha"; but, mostly, ourselves.