In Buddhism, it is said “Life is suffering” or “Everything in your life is suffering.”

When you see this statement as it says literally, you might feel disappointing or hopeless. To be honest, I felt so too.

I rephrased this to make it more convincing to me to “Whatever happens to you, you do not need to be disappointed with it because it is normal to be suffering.”
Well, it was not actually that convincing anyways, but I had no other thoughts.

Today, a new thought came into my mind, which is “What is suffer?”

Originally, “suffer” was translated from a sanskrit word “duhkha.” The word is sometimes translated to “pain” other than “suffer,” but it is the limitation of translation. There is no one-to-one translation. The word “duhkha” literally means uncomfortable situation. Then, the statment “Life is suffering” became more convincing to me.

Everything in your life is changing everyday, every moment. When things change, you need more energy to admit and accept the changes. It might sometimes require pain physically or mentally. So, you will face uncomfortable situation, and that is “suffering.”

Since everything in your life is changing, you feel “suffer” to use your extra energy on it.

In that sense, “Life is suffering” does not mean anything disappointing or hopeless. It explains “Everything keeps changing, and you need to admit and accept the change.”

Please note that everything is in the material world.

Staying with your heart center, which does not belong to the material world and is always still, you can be away from the suffer and can stay calm. Just as a seer, see all changes outside of your world from your heart.

Meditation is the practice to keep yourself in your heart center.

Life is suffering until you practice to be a seer and not to be bothered anything in the material world. You will be comfortable staying in your heart. Always, be with your heart.

Aiki