ten ways to suffer less - part 1, a sense of perspective
“When I look inside and see I am nothing, that is Wisdom”
The first thing to say is that when I get caught up in the drama – which most of us do there are a number of things which I have found help me and bring me back to a sense of equilibrium and equanimity.
So, I thought I’d lay them out, one at a time, in the hope they may be helpful to you.
And here is the first
Number 1 – A Sense of Perspective
So here we are, one of over 8 billion people on Earth
The earth itself turns on its axis at 1000 miles per hour and is travelling at 67000 miles per hour around the sun (and yet somehow, we don’t feel a thing!).
The earth is just one of between 100 billion and 400 billion planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way and there are the same number of stars – so somewhere between 200 billion and 800 billion altogether.
And then if you head a bit further out, they estimate there are between 200 billion and 2 trillion galaxies in the Universe.
The Universe itself, as well as being quite large, is also quite old – in fact the Big Bang is estimated to have occurred something like 13.8 billion years ago with the earth being a relative youngster at a mere 4.5 billion years of age – with the first signs of life on this planet appearing about 3.7 billion years ago.
This means, if the age of the earth were a 24 hour clock, we, in any recognisable form, have been around since just after 1130pm.
By any stretch, it is difficult to see how our individual lives which are so infinitesimally small and so brief, matter at all in the grand scheme of things.
And yet, here we are, the stars in our own movie – which is the only show in town and suffering our personal preoccupation with me and mine.
Not only all of that, but at some point, we are all going to die.
And not long after, who we were, what we did, will all be forgotten.
But because we lose all sense of perspective, we get transfixed by our own story, our own narrative and suffer if our latest post on Facebook or Instagram, does not get the number of likes that we think they should.
To maintain a sense of perspective therefore can really help.
This is not in any way however to say that we are unimportant.
At first glance this may appear contradictory – but it is not.
As life itself, as a conscious being, aware of itself, we are invaluable, each one of us as precious and miraculous as it is possible to be.
And if we can manage to live our lives with this perspective in mind, our suffering may diminish, and we can be free - to enjoy the gift of simply being alive.
In the words of Nisargadatta Maharaj;
“When I look inside and see I am nothing, that is Wisdom. When I look outside and see I am nothing, that is Love. And between the two my life flows.”