The balance of happiness and suffering

Question: “Based on personal experience, I have learned that the universe always seeks balance. Too much happiness=too much pain and too much pain=too much happiness. When we reach balance what will happen to pain and happiness? Will they still exist? Or is pain just an illusion for us to grow as sacred beings? I understand that in higher realms of consciousness there is no such thing as love and hate, there is only understanding, so I would like to know your opinion on this.”

There can never be just happiness or just suffering, it is not either/or. Happiness and suffering work and live together, they are interdependent. One can’t exist without the other. If there was no suffering, we would not know what happiness is, and if there was no happiness, we would not know what suffering is. In Buddhism, we don’t try to “eliminate” suffering, per say. We eradicate it by understanding it, working with it, and accepting it.

On our journey to enlightenment, we try to eradicate the “poisons” that cause suffering; ignorance, greed, and anger, because we know these are the causes of suffering. Once we’ve gotten the antidote, we can live with content and peace, or happiness if you want to call it that. But when we talk about eradicate, we don’t necessarily mean to “completely remove” or “destroy,” but as I mentioned, we want to understand and accept. Because when we truly understand the essence of suffering, we can accept the causes and conditions that may arise, and we live a little more peacefully because we know that.

 

Smile and be well!

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