Life is pain.
Life is suffering
This is true on Earth—but truer on Olrania
These are the introductory sentences of Chasing the Sun, a sci-fi novel that took me multiple years to write. I wanted to touch on a universal truth in those sentences. That everyone—no matter who they are—suffers. Also, things can always get worse. This is certainly the case for the crew of the Algora when they crash land on a desert planet. The story also touches on the idea that, as humans, we are often our own worst enemy.
But this post is not about Chasing the Sun. Rather it is about the suffering that we all have to endure while we are here on Earth. It’s about how we can counter that suffering with a strategy of mindfulness, a strategy to stay present even when things get difficult. My view is that mindfulness lessens our suffering in the moment, but it also moves us closer to peace as we cultivate it.
Mindfulness is a powerful way to meet suffering. This is because it releases us from the suffering to some degree. For instance, when we are in a state of anger but can say, “Wow, I feel really angry,” the mere recognition of the anger can diminish the charge. Some pains and knots run deep and I wont claim that mindfulness always diminishes the pain because sometimes it can make us more aware of what is there. But to some degree, mindfulness (or awareness) is the first step to releasing things that do not serve us.
But mindfulness doesn’t have to only be about meeting suffering. It can also just be about being fully in the experience of your life. If we’re mindful with each action that we take, we tend to notice things that would otherwise go unnoticed. Our own life becomes our teacher. We don’t have to go to an ashram or a mediation retreat to learn something profound about ourselves. We can just pay close attention to each step we take daily. We can be mindful (and at peace) while doing laundry, for example.
I’m reminded here of experiences that I’ve had during lucid dreaming. In lucid dreaming, when you focus on one particular thing, that thing will show you something important. The object can be something interesting like a strange bird, or it can be something mundane like a wall. But during lucid dreaming, when you pay really close attention to something, it morphs and changes and shows you something profound. The same happens when we practice mindfulness in our lives, the only difference is that it’s not quite as instantaneous. The change happens over time. Our experience and perception of mundane things deepen.
Finally, a reason to meet everyday mindfully is just because it feels good in the moment. Yes, there are times that I have a headache and feel tired and not in the mood for anything. It’s a little difficult to stay mindful during those times, but for the most part, when I’m present, I feel good. I’m not rushing to finish some goal, and I’m not trying to fix something with arguments inside my head—I’m just in the moment.