An Insight...

By: James Slider

To be a sentient being is to be subject to endless causes and conditions that shape your life, an infinitely complex entanglement that we call reality. The reality we experience is shaped by our interaction with things and other beings, phenomena that we observe and act upon. Being a part of this entanglement means two things: First, it means that we subjectively create the world we experience by acting as an observer of reality. Second, it means that we ourselves are objects of other's observation and in that way we are created by the same entanglement that we help to construct. In short, we are both the shaper and the shaped of reality.

Human beings are the inherent subject of a multitude of states and events including birth, death, suffering, and change. To observe and interact with an object (sentient or not) is to submit yourself to suffering, because inevitably that thing will leave, change, or die. The alternative to this cycle being a total detachment from reality, which would invariably lead to more suffering than the first option.

However, this suffering can be alleviated through our interactions, encounters facilitated by the same entanglement that subjects us to suffering in the first place. The sick can be healed, hatred fades away, the process of death is supplemented by life, and a number of other examples. Despite the many causes and conditions associated with suffering, there are just as many remedies to this state, if only human beings are willing to act as the agents who choose to apply these remedies.

The assertion i wish to make here is that to be a participant in reality is to commit yourself to the alleviation of suffering. To make an effort to stop the pain that others feel, that you feel, that you would inflict on others by acting carelessly. Mindfulness is of extreme importance in this case, because freedom from suffering comes not from some escape to an otherworldly paradise, but from accepting current circumstances, and choosing to live compassionately and with hope. Choosing not to act is to live complacently with suffering, to perpetuate the same things that plague all of mankind.

Any truth worthy of articulation is too important to betray. - Jay Garfield