EVERBODY HURTS SOMETIMES

The Sanskrit word, dukkha, has always brought both confusion and insight to the way I have viewed life. I have tried to imagine its intention as a method to reflect the suffering of the masses; the unsatisfactory accrual of everyday strife that we all face. Recently, on a personal level, the actual meaning has become much more complex.

This ancient word, dukkha, targets how we search for the most immediate path to a resolution of both our real and abstract pain. Its focus is to re-classify the expression of the hurt that we feel. Our altered internal clocks become the timepieces that make our days long and our nights even longer.

Often, I have found that hiding personal discomfort is an awkward and complicated way of asking people to genuinely look at us. To explain this further, try to imagine the energy a stranger would need to see who we are, despite the veiled messages we project. This is not possible, for it is a time when our personal silence transforms everything in life to grey. Our pain has developed secrets that are now masterfully altered.

Dukkha is a result of our attachments to the past; specifically, to the idea of who we have become. It manifests our life’s distorted identity to be brought forward and exposed for all to see. Sadly, dukkha often represents our inability to utterly understand how we connect to our soul. These are the moments when we form the root of all life’s delusions.

My Buddhist friends are not philosophical gurus; however, they offer simple explanations for many of life challenges. They express one simple concept: Everybody hurts; everybody intimately knows life’s isolated pain.

Ultimately, I believe dukkha applies to the universality of life’s challenges and its application to all of us. No one is excused, but there are exit ramps out of the wilderness of our hurt.

To create a belief system that we should never give up is easy. However, there are multiple reasons to throw up our hands to the trials of life, especially when we feel alone and everything is going wrong. Fortunately, for all of us, there is a position of impermanence to life’s uncertainties.

Without doubt, dukkha can decompress our strengths and spirit. It can make us cry, bring about additional unwanted pain, and make us feel eternally alone. These are often the occasions when we need to gravitate toward those we love and trust.

There are three major certainties in life. First: Everybody hurts sometimes. Second: A healing energy for everything that hurts us exists. Thirdly: All feelings are transitory.

Just Hold On.