ON SUFFERING III

But a question still remains:

If we can create our own suffering isn’t it true that we can also create our happiness?

If we can imagine a future full of problems and hardship, can’t we also imagine a future full of success and happiness?

If we can dwell in our past sorrow can’t we also dwell in our past joy?

If all things are equal, why is life suffering and not joy?

 

The answer my surprise you but the truth is that we are build that way.

We have a natural propensity for suffering we are wired from birth to favor negativity over positivity. Suffering is in our genes.

 

We are the dominant species on this planet. We do not have the power of the elephant, the speed of the cheetah or the teeth and claws of the tiger yet we have become the masters of tigers and elephants alike. It is our mind our reason and imagination that have made us survive and dominate the natural world.

It is our ability to recall the past and foresee the future that has given us the winning edge.

But that supremacy has a price tag attached to it.

 

Imagine life ten thousand years ago. Every day is a fight for survival. Every day could be your last day. Death is one step behind you or around the next corner waiting for you. Every day you are the hunter and the pray.

You see a thing on your path way: Is it a snake or is it a twig? If you get that answer wrong you could be dead. So here how our survival works. Given a choice, assume the worst.

And that has been encrypted in our genes every day for millions of years of our evolution.

 

So you may have asked yourself in the past what did I do that?

Why didn’t I asked for a raise, when I knew I deserved one?

Why didn’t I quit my job when the writing was on the wall?

Why didn’t I follow my dream and started my own business?

Why did I stayed in that bad relationship when I knew it was a mistake?

And the answer is that more powerful that your desire for success and happiness is the instinct of self preservation and protection.

 

Life is suffering, it is the price we had to pay to survive.