Living your Truth

I had a rather lovely, feed my soul, conversation. Among things shared, exchanged and offered, were the four noble truths that are the foundation of Buddhism:

Truth #1: LIFE IS SUFFERING

Truth #2: OUR PURPOSE IS TO FIND THE ROOT OF SUFFERING

Truth #3: THE ROOT OF SUFFERING IS ATTACHMENT

Truth # 4: THE WAY TO WISDOM AND ENLIGHTENMENT IS THROUGH COMPASSION in everything we see, we hear, we speak, we think, we feel, we do and relate

It was laid in front of me, after I questioned if any of us ever find total fulfillment. If we have the ability to eventually stop searching. Or comparing. The constant quest for more, or better. Truth #1 is a very debatable truth to me. I will write more on it in a different blog. But the fact remains that we all, no matter who we are and what our life circumstances are, have “suffered” in our life. Of course the reasons and the amount of suffering are relative only to the one believing he or she is suffering.

Here’s the thing. One has to believe that one is suffering. I think I hashed this over a few times in my blogs. Your beliefs create your world. Anyways, so you decided that you are suffering. You accepted that as part of your life. To remedy that, you have to move on to Truth #2. Finding the root of suffering. Now we can all agree that there is a universal consensus on suffering. Famine, war, human trafficking are among a few we are all aware of that cause suffering. But I’m sure that this is not what is referred to here. I do believe Truth #2 is referring to finding the root of our “personal” suffering. Suffering to me seems to be always based in lacking. Lacking of whatever you desire. Lacking of love, lacking of acceptance, lacking of understanding, lacking of belonging. Even superficial lacking of material things cause suffering in people’s minds. It’s the belief that we are entitled to specific things that should happen in our life that give us that sense of “lacking”. We are being sold how life should be, and as long as we buy into that, we will be continuously striving for those things, those life events, that we believe we are entitled to.

Which takes us to Truth # 3. The root of suffering is attachment. As my conversation partner pointed out very poignantly, why would I be asked to find the root of suffering, just to be told what the root of suffering is. He came to the conclusion that we all must find our own root of suffering. Our own source of attachment. Your attachments are not my attachments. Only you know those things that make you despair if you feel like you are “losing” it, or after you “lost” it. That is the universal root of suffering, one’s attachment. Once you realize that anything that you are attached to in the form of things or people, is only because you are attached to what you belief to be true in that moment, you will develop compassion for yourself. If you are able to let go of what you believe, and move on to another truth, your attachment to things or people will stop, relieving you from suffering.

In very simplistic terms, if you let go of the belief that you can’t go on without a lover who just dumped you, you will accept the truth that you can indeed live without this lover and make your life be just as wonderful as you choose. I don’t think I can describe it more basic than that. But of course attachments and suffering are much more in depth than just that. Explore your roots of suffering. When you feel that you are suffering, don’t question the object or circumstance of what “causes” your suffering. Question what you believe to be true in that moment to release your suffering.