To Not Suffer Is Happiness In Itself

English: Guanyin is the bodhisattva associated with compassion. Español: Guanyin, también llamado Guanshiyin, es Bodhisattva principal en el budismo chino. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we are suffering or in pain, we think how wonderful it would be if it wasn’t like that. We wait until we are hurting in order to appreciate when we are not in pain. The pain in my back disappeared for almost two weeks, and was very minimal these past few weeks, and I thought it was finally gone as long as I was careful and did not over exert myself. However, the pain has come back and I continue to try to find over the counter pain relievers that will work. I try not to complain about it as much, because it is the same story and doesn’t change much.

These past four days have been hard to deal with due to my back, and some hours are worse than others. After a long day at work today, I was happy to go home by taking the bus. I enjoy sitting on the bus to go home, I don’t have to worry about concentrating on driving and can relax. It felt good to sit after walking to the bus stop from work and was happy to get a bus quickly. The simplest things in life can be so sweet.

As I sat on the bus listening to music on my iPod, I noticed a girl about my age and then realised she had a cane because she was blind. It put into perspective the suffering that I endure is impermanent, like all suffering, (in the least we hope it will go away sooner than later), but that the suffering of others is greater than my own. The girl on the bus may not feel that her blindness is suffering, because she may have become accustomed to it, perhaps even more enduring with her struggles than I deal with mine. It makes us realise that no matter what our suffering is, others suffer in different ways, but it’s how we deal with it that matters most.

My pain is more of a frustration, because the cause and solution is not known. But, there are others whose suffering is greater; the cause may be known, yet the solution not known. When you’re not hurting emotionally or physically, smile. Recognise it. It feels good to not hurt, so don’t wait until you hurt to wish that you weren’t. When pain goes away, be relieved and happy, because we don’t know when it will happen again for certain, so be happy in the moment of being pain-free.

When we have the suffering of change, the temporary cessation of suffering in our lives, no matter how small or short it may be, we need to recognise it and be grateful for it. It should make us want to attain it permanently in this impermanent world, that being nirvana. If we don’t seek it, we will only be living for the temporary cessations in samsara, which never lasts as long as we want to.

I added the image of Guanyin, which a statue I just bought of her for my home. Guanyin is the female form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, associated with compassion. As Guanyin/Avalokiteshvara has compassion for our suffering, we need to turn our compassion to the suffering of others. If we become so consumed by our own suffering, we neglect the suffering of others when we focus on ourselves which in any case lack of any inherent existance. If we think of others, when we are in the midst of suffering, it can lessen our burden because we’re not focused on our own problems. Guanyin will hear our cries and help us, but we must in turn help others.  Together, we all help each other.

Namaste.