While browsing in the internet, I found this article which greatly interested me. It talks about how one can achieve peace of mind and let go of suffering. According to Sabrina Reeds, author of the article, suffering is hard to judge from the outside and only those who are undergoing it can judge it best. Further, Reeds characterized peace of mind as something that is too comprehensive for modern psychology to define completely. And most all, Reeds highlighted a simple fact that is most often ignored by most of us, peace of mind can be achieved through spirituality.
One line catches my attention the most, (The Buddha advised:) "Monks, what is the noble truth about suffering? Birth is suffering, old age is suffering, death is suffering, grief, lamentation, discomfort, unhappiness and despair are suffering; to wish for something and not obtain it is suffering. "
How true right? To wish for something that you cannot get is suffering. Humans have the tendency to wish for something that is often beyond their reach. We never long for something that we can easily have, we always long for something that is not within reach. We long for things that we cannot afford; we long for people that we can't have; we long for a life that is not meant for us. We long to be thin; we long to be like a supermodel; we long for power, wealth and fame. The more that we long for that something, the more that we forget the things that are already in us and the things that are within our reach.
Worst, when we cannot have the things that we long for we blame God for our sufferings. Thinking about it, it makes me realize that we do not have the right to blame God for our sufferings especially when we are the ones who brought it to ourselves. God already provided us with what we need and if only we can be happy with what we have, then we don't have to feel the pangs of suffering. But then of course, human as we are, we always do the opposite. We are not satisfied with what we have and we keep on asking for those that we cannot have and end up hurting ourselves in the process.
Reeds are right, we cannot eliminate suffering but by accepting what God wants in our lives we can minimize the impacts of suffering.
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