Being Human is Hard - the First Noble Truth

<p>How many of you think life can often be a little...difficult?  Yeah, me too. But what I’ve found is that when I stop resisting that life can be hard sometimes, and when I stop thinking something has gone terribly wrong just because things aren’t easy or I’m not happy, then I can start embracing life more fully and savor the good times even more. Today I want to talk about how while being a human is hard, accepting that truth can be to our advantage.</p><p> </p><p>When the Buddha first taught, he could have taught <i>anything</i>, right? He had <strong>just </strong>woken up completely and his mind was free. The interesting thing is that at first, out of all the options he <i>could have</i> mentioned first - buddha nature, clarity, nirvana, bliss, and more (all those things many of us aim for in meditation or yoga practice) - he chose to talk about <strong>suffering</strong>.</p><p><br />The way I have learned to see this is that he chose to talk about how being a human is hard.</p><p> </p><p>This concept is important to grasp because while it may initially seem like a bummer to focus on, if we are to free our minds - and therefore our lives - we can’t keep <strong>resisting </strong>reality. And we need to recognize the pain in our lives so we can acknowledge that this too, is a part of life.</p><p><br /><i>Dukkha </i>is a Pali word often translated as “suffering.”  Our lives are entwined and characterized by dukkha, meaning our <strong>mental </strong>experiences of discomfort, pain, stress, instability, inadequacy, failure, and disappointment - each of which is felt as suffering in our <strong>mind</strong>.</p><p> </p><p>This teaching is also often referred to as the “Truth of Suffering,” and in it there are three kinds of suffering:</p><p> </p><p>The first is the obvious suffering caused by<strong> physical discomfort</strong> (from minor pains to injuries and chronic disease) and <strong>emotional suffering</strong>, like being frustrated that things don’t go your way, or being worried about meeting other