Suffering comes from the illusion that things can be just the way we want them to be, and the inevitable disappointment that we experience when things eventually, inevitable fall apart. We never get what we want, for long.

Over & over. This is a law of the universe, and the sooner that we admit that this is true, the better.

Freedom emerges out of the realization that we are not one person inside, but many. Each of us has many ‘I’s” running around inside, which is why, in different situations, we experience ourselves as reacting completely differently. These “I’s” are mechanical. We think “we” are making choices, but it is just one “I” or another reacting to whatever is going on outside ourselves. This is objective, and observable.

So, sometimes we love pizza, and sometimes we hate pizza, and sometimes we deeply care for our partners, and sometimes we’d like to run them over with a schoolbus. In either case, we are nothing more than slaves to our mechanical reactions.

Until we realize that we are not one inside, but many, we will not make even a first step to freedom. We must be willing to admit that we are mechanical, and then begin the slow process of trying to observe our own reactions, without judgement. Solwly, eventually, something shifts.