Cycle Of Pain

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed but is merely converted from one form to another.  The light energy from the sun can be harnessed by plants, which, through photosynthesis, convert it to chemical energy. Plants use this energy to grow fruit, which we eat. We store this energy for when we need to exert ourselves, when we convert it to kinetic energy. The energy never disappears, but is instead just displaced.

Pain is in a sense the same as this, creating a parallel to the first law of thermodynamics which I shall call the cycle of pain.

Pain can change but it never ever goes away.  The cycle of pain means that it spreads itself out, affecting countless people. 

Except, I think it can go away.  Pain differs from energy in important ways.  Pain can be created, added to, and multiplied or increased exponentially.

As life continues, everyday more and more people are born and the elderly live longer with every passing day, meaning there are more egos to feel and create pain. 

I believe the internet and other mass communication technologies only expand each single person’s ability to transfer and create more and more pain in more and more people. If I am honest, I think that weapons of mass destruction have the same function.

I know that as a conscious human being,  I, like everyone else can actively work to stop the flow and creation of pain.  We can all recognize that another person's negativity is his or her pain, not ours.  I think this is incredibly simple to comprehend but extremely difficult to achieve. It takes a lot of effort.

If you put yourself right in the moment of a very tense or stressful situation, a real situation from your own life.  In thinking about it, How did you react? Was it with serenity and compassion? Did you embrace this as a challenge and opportunity for growth?  I reckon, In all likelihood, far from it!

You probably like me, shouted back, clamped down, cried, or otherwise reacted to negativity with negativity, and this in turn negatively affected someone else, because this is hard, I mean really hard. And yet, it’s the struggle we, as human beings, face every day.

When I sit and think about being my best, about trying to make a difference in the world, I think sometimes about legendary figures like Gandhi or Mother Theresa. Legendary figures save rain forests, end poverty, or find a cure for horrible diseases.  Very few people will ever have the chance to be in the right place at the right time to make such a difference. Even if I had the skills and desire, I might not have the resources, the connections, or even be born in the right era to affect such a change.  I know that not everyone can accomplish extraordinary things.  I think it is best to start with what I can influence today.  This is our bias, made dramatically worse in recent years by social media.  And yet, I believe it is the ordinary, everyday flow of life that is so difficult to navigate in a way that does no harm to ourselves or others.  Daily life presents the most obvious opportunity to change the world around us, to end the cycle of pain.  I sit here and think, I think of what a different place the world would be if one million or one billion people had this same thought all at once.

Everything that happens in my life is the result of an unknowable series of chance events that happened over centuries.  Even when I am not the cause of it, most of us shut our eyes and turn away from other people's pain because we have been hurt or we are already hurting and we don't want to face anymore pain. 

To come to and maintain the level of consciousness necessary to actively counter the cycle of pain requires a certain amount of vigilance that is profound and simple. 

To break and not perpetuate the cycle of pain, to purify and not pollute our emotional environment is mundane but can be impactful. To me, this is what it means to be the change I wish to see in the world.  It is a challenge each day to remember the cycle of pain and my role in it, and, more importantly, not to perpetuate it. Nevertheless, I find life more rewarding now. 

My path is littered, like everyone's with mistakes and failings, most days I am able to see the incremental positive differences that I make.  I don’t know what all of this will amount to, but what I do know is that I feel so much more rewarded and empowered.