A Noble Truth

It is in our nature to suffer.
We suffer because we cling to things that are transient, and all things in life are transient.
Our suffering can be overcome.
A path exists, available to each of us, that will lead to an end to our suffering.

These are a paraphrase, an interpretation, of the four noble truths. The Buddha's first gift to the world. They are simple ideas, and yet worthy of a lifetime of contemplation. We suffer because of attachment, craving, and clinging. It comes in many forms, our relationships, our materialism, even our approach to spirituality. We are socialized to identify self via object, to define our individual nature by what we do, what we wear, and with whom we consort. We are social animals in a social world, desperate for acceptance and the approval of others. We build a fortress around our ego, ever vigilant of those that might challenge our sense of self. We construct elaborate measures to quantify our worth, beginning with a score on a test that ranks us as less than or more than, onwards to wealth, career, and title. Our culture, particularly in the West encourages us to feed ego, to define our individual nature, to separate ourselves from fellow man. In feeding ego we feed alienation. We feed insecurity, desire, doubt. Who are we, but what we appear as to others? Where is the self, when all our mental jewelry, the adornments supporting our ego, are stripped away?

I've been contemplating a quote by Telliard de Chardin "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings sharing a human experience."

We are spiritual beings sharing a human experience... If we but accept this simple premise, how can we possibly see our existence as rooted in the pursuit of supporting ego? This life, this canvas, is but a stage for our development. A fine tool for the refinement of our truest nature. We are each threads woven together into the tapestry of our shared reality. Our experiences, our choices, our karma, tied together in every loop and stitch, and reverberating out across the fabric of our collective being. We are entangled, energetic, and eternal, and ultimately we are one.

If we are spiritual beings sharing a human experience why then do we suffer? Perhaps we suffer because we have forgotten our nature. Perhaps we suffer to find our path and awaken to our truest self. Perhaps our suffering is instead our gift, a sharp blade, which used properly, can cleave us of our ignorance, and awaken us to our potential. A means to remind us of a first noble truth, lost in our modernity, the truth that we are all simply spiritual beings sharing a human experience.