We choose our own suffering.

We choose our own suffering.

We get surprised to hear that “ we choose our suffering, “but WE DO.   

1. Despite seeing the obvious death every day, everywhere all the time, we expect our loved ones to last forever, and when death enters into our own “inner circle,” we suffer – we ignored the obvious, and WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
2. Despite knowing that changing ourselves is so difficult, we spend our whole life’s energy trying to “fix” and “change” others, and when they don’t change, we even force them. This leads to struggle and friction and we suffer. We rather preach than practice. – WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
3. We seek attention from others who themselves are striving for attention from others. We are knocking on their doors, and they have gone knocking on others’ doors. We don’t get attention, and we suffer. – WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
4. We backbite others ( put them down ), and when we hear that someone did the same to us, we suffer. What goes around, comes around. We get what we give. We forgot this cardinal rule – WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
5. We engage ourselves in learning and then hotly and passionately discussing many matters with others  ( like politics and world events ), where our actual physical involvement is zero, and then we ask ourselves, “Why am I so restless? “. We could have stayed out of the whole thing, but WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
6. We always downplay the potentialities of the people close by instead of respecting them. We forget that – friendship happens only among equals, so friction ( instead of peace ) becomes our daily life – WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
7. In life, there are two choices – GOOD and PLEASANT. Good is never pleasant. Pleasant is never good. We know that, and still, we choose the pleasant, and then we suffer from diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. We let go of the wisdom, and WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
8. We always live in the future, expecting impossible things to happen. We want summer in winter and winter in summer, and by doing this, we miss out on enjoying what is in the present. And then we complain that we have no fun in life. Fun is in NOW. WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
9. We eat when we are not hungry, drink when not thirsty, and get surprised when we get diseases. WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
10. We make winning an argument a priory over peace and friendship and then have restlessness over futile discussions. WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.
11. We choose money over friendship, and when we get secluded in life, we feel lonely. WE CHOSE OUR SUFFERING.