Life is Painful

There is a lot of pain in human life. Sometimes our pain is caused by an outside tragedy, such as difficult circumstances we go through. Sometimes events shake our world to its core. Other times we feel internal and emotional pain – which we are all very vulnerable to.

The Pain of Separation

The sense of being human, of being a person, is also painful because we feel a separation between ourselves and others, a separation between ourselves and the world. As long as this sense of fundamental separation continues in our consciousness, there is always going to be pain, pain that we cannot really describe – it is an existential pain. This pain also causes loneliness that can be deeper than just longing for companionship.

Healing Through Transcendence

The pain of this loneliness won’t go away by trying to fill our inner vacuum through acquiring external comforts. It can, however, be healed through what might be called true transcendence, which is the goal of many spiritual traditions, even many that don’t accept each other’s doctrines. True transcendence is the experience that we are no longer trapped in the narrow realm of the ego.

There is a part of us that longs to experience transcendence. Transcendence gives us the sense that all of our problems are gone. It is the sense that somehow we are one with everything. We don’t have to be spiritual to have this longing for transcendence. It is a universal longing.

Choosing Compassion: How to Be of Benefit in a World That Needs Our Love
Anam Thubten

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