How do we suffer? Loneliness comes to mind in the pandemic. Addiction, obsession, illness, shame, guilt, loathing, fantasy, nightmares, doubt, confusion, anger, unforgiveness, revenge, injustice regarding the American political system; destruction of earth, forest, ocean; dreams that never came to fruition - any or all can cloud perception. Step back and see suffering as part of the human condition. The stepping back awareness can be imagined from a cloud, or hill overlooking your conditioned mind.

The observer and the sufferer can both serve to go deeper, seeing the rise and fall of these conditions as vehicles for growth and transformation.

All suffering is rooted in our wish for life conditions to be different instead of accepting them as they are, said the Buddha.

If one person hurt you, can you forgive her? Can you forgive yourself for hurting others? How do we get caught in the all too human tendency to narrow focus to what they did, not who they are -children of the divine.

Let go and perceive how it feels to forgive, how pain releases, boundaries dissolve, as you allow yourself to be forgiven. You open yourself to the boundless love rooted in the fourth chakra of the heart. Acknowledge your humanity just as it is.

I am. I exist. I am a speck of humanity within the whole. If only, if only, if only, is a response all too common which shuts off the great potential inherent in this moment: to be love, to be beauty, to be joyful in the moment just as it is, without judgement of how we wish life was different.

These seeds of suffering are a badge of our commonality. If I can’t accept who I am, I’ll never accept who you are. But I can and I will.

The warmth of the sun shines equally on us all. The rising tide, the waxing and waning of the moon, do not cease when we fail to be a loving instrument for the release of suffering of all beings.

The cosmos is ours when we quiet the mind, leaving the chaos of ego behind. OM