Buddhism, Eckhart Tolle, and Jean-Paul Sartre, who remind us (in their own way) that we cause our own suffering and remind us to live in the now.
Today is one of those days, a day that I have decided to think about how things in my life bother me. I have become stressed out. Between my current low paying job, the pursuit of a better (and more ethical) one and my mountain of loans I must chip away at, I am thoroughly stressed. This is of course because I am focusing not on what’s happening right now, but on things that may happen in the future or have happened in the past.
Today is my day off, so there is no reason to worry about my job or what may await in the future (re: employment), yet it bothers me nonetheless. The loan companies are being kept at bay, though I am unable to begin investing for my eventual retirement – which again does not immediately affect me and is only temporary, yet once again I am bothered.
As I step back away from it all I remember what I have read of Buddhist teachings, mostly through Tolle’s interpretation (I know it’s not perfect) and I am reminded that in this moment I create my own suffering. By choosing to focus on past situations at work or things that may happen at work, the way things could be at work and possible futures I cause my suffering. As Sartre would say – by positing a nothingness (a thing or scenario which does not exist) and wishing it into being (wishing it were real – or dreading it) I cause my own suffering.
In this moment, none of the things in the past affect me – nor can they affect me; for they are past. The same follows for what may happen in the future. At this point in time I am free from suffering other than that which I create myself through a denial of the present moment. I must accept this moment with a resounding YES. This moment holds all that there is for me in the world – I cannot travel to the past and the future does not exist until it becomes the moment in which I too exist. For me the present moment is all that there is and when I deny it, I cause my own suffering.
This would hold true even if things in this moment were trying, even if I was having a difficult day, I must accept the present moment. To deny it and wish it were an easy day at work or a day off is to only add to the suffering, accept the present and recognize that it will pass just like every other moment and you will be a happier person. To saturate yourself with loathing of the present or to reject it utterly by living in the past, dwelling on mistakes or dreading the future is to only cause your own suffering.
Methinks I should take my own advice. I will relish this day off, living in the moment and take tomorrow as it may come. This is not to say I cannot plan or prepare for the future or learn from mistakes, but to assign emotion to things that cannot be changed or have yet to happen is to invite more needless suffering to a perfectly pleasant Monday off of work.
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