Life is Pain

When he was asked the meaning of life the Buddha answered by saying "Life is pain." Why is this so? What is the source of our pain and suffering?

We tend to view pain and suffering as negative things, and this is certainly understandable, but the Buddha was saying something different than that. Fear naturally creates resistance. When we become afraid we close off, we shut down. And when we close off to life we inevitably create pain for ourselves. A tight muscle will sprain, a relaxed one will not.

So, pain is a part, and one might argue a vital and essential part, of life because it warns us about the places where we are contracted, where we close off to the truth, where we are out of harmony. The Buddha was correct because if we did not separate it would be because we had no fear and we would not need to be here on earth. So yes "Life is pain" but it does not have to be a bad thing.

This does not mean that to become enlightened one must become a spineless jellyfish. In fact, it is quite the opposite. One can be strong without the rigidity of resistance. That is real strength. Not having resistance actually makes one stronger. True power does not throw up walls to people or to life; it embraces them. Nature is the most powerful of all things because it embraces everything. So does an infant or a puppy. The power in Christ's message comes from its universality.

Perhaps you have noticed that if you do not deal with an issue it will return in a more intense form to confront you. You are lovable and you are eventually going to have to accept that truth. It may be in the next lifetime but trust me, it's not going to go away. As has been said, "You will meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it." So, you will have to face this issue somewhere, sometime. But "facing it" does not mean confronting it. As we shall see, ego issues cannot be confronted; they can only be transcended.

The great founder of the martial art Aikido, Morehei Ueshiba, even in his later years was exquisite in his practice of one of the most complex of all the martial arts. One day a student asked him "Master, how is it that you never seem to be off?" Ueshiba thought for a moment and replied "But I do make mistakes! I get off all the time! The secret is that I correct so quickly, no one notices." Ueshiba was so open to the moment, so aware of himself and his surroundings, that he could correct and change a misjudgment almost instantly, even under conditions of extreme physical confrontation. It wasn't about flawless perfection, or always doing it right, it was about being aware and making the changes necessary to maintain harmony with changing surroundings. Adaptation is living perfection.

Think about a surfer riding a wave. In each moment the surfer is confronted with a rapidly changing complex of forces, each of which attack his equilibrium and threaten to catapult him head first into the water. The surfer's task is to be so in tune with the moment-by-moment changes in the environment that he can instantaneously respond and correct in order to maintain his balance. If he is really tuned in, the surfer will make many minor corrections in each moment so that he does not have to make big corrections later. As Seneca wrote "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult."

That is the principle of a happy life and that is the challenge you face in dealing with your fear. Fear causes us to become rigid and stiff (physically and emotionally). We hold back, we do not respond in the moment. If our surfer becomes afraid and up tight or tries to muscle his way through the situation, the massive power of the ocean will simply toss his disharmonious miniscule human energy into the drink. Thus, it is with life.