Shot By Brock

Life is hard and full of challenges. Buddhists would even go so far as to suggest that life is suffering as a result our attachment to it. It stands to reason, then, that the ultimate goal in life is not necessarily happiness, but the cessation of this suffering.   There are, perhaps, three routes to this goal. I’m sure there are many more if you were to explore the sutras, or read up on the philosophy of life, but for now I’ll settle with three.  One is to identify those things in our life that we’re unhappy with, which we perceive to be causing us suffering or unhappiness, and work to eradicate them. However, this can cause problems – further suffering – in itself. The constant striving for something different, something better, amplifies our dissatisfaction with where we are now. It amplifies our dissatisfaction with ‘what is’ and we find ourselves increasingly dissatisfied, disempowered, and resentful of how unfair life is.   There is an alternative though. If we find ourselves wrestling wi