I sit on the evening bus in a deep-seated turmoil. My thoughts, like waves in a ferocious storm, washing over each other with no senseless direction; thoughts too haphazard to make sense of, and receding to quickly too pinpoint. It has become almost difficult to pinpoint where this doubtless sense of suffering comes from. Yes, there was a rejection on a large scale by a certain woman. Yes, it seemed like it had almost physically pained me. Which was surely far beyond the scale of which the event should be measured against. But as I sat on the bus, the waves of thoughts seemed almost inhumanly catastrophic.

All of a sudden one wave of thought broke clear of the others long enough for me to make sense of it. Life is suffering. One of the noble truths of Buddhism, which had been undoubtedly been buried in my unconscious from some book or another. Keeping this truth in mind, and using that long forgotten book as a focus point, I preceded to work through this suffering. To attempt to detach myself from it: to view it from a truly objective lens. This is what Buddhists call Bare Attention. Really being able to evaluate how you should react to any situation in order to leave it either a more knowledgable, or more happy person.

I realized that much of society’s innovations were accomplished because of human suffering, but many people seem to have forgotten this. You see, when people suffer large emotional blows they are often able to bounce back with great vigor. It is the great adaptability of the human being that we are able to "make the most" of many situations that in the moment many people would label as "life ruining". People are known to act on emotions. Whether your suffering leads to fear, hatred, jealousy, anger, all depends on the person, but its ultimate result is action being taken. How many times in a low moment, have you decided to "never do something again", or to "be more of something else". It is at our lowest when we create resolutions to be our highest.

So if this holds true, why should we not regard the act of suffering with pleasure? Many would find my position sadistic in nature, but I would contend that anything that can lead to positive life decisions should be approached with at least some degree of pleasure. And even if those life decisions are not positive ones per se, it is still good to make mistakes and move forward! I myself would rather make changes in my life that will not likely benefit me in the wrong way than to have an idle personality for years on end. One that never changes or fluctuates. I do not stand people who can live out their lives in that fashion.

So, whenever I feel the emotion tidal waves sweeping over my psyche these days I simply stop and think first, what should my real response to this event be? Then if that fails I just shrug and let myself go on the rolling ride that is human emotion. Smiling all the way, because I know in the end, whatever happens can not be all bad.