An explanation of suffering

In a way, all-pervasive suffering so thoroughly impregnates our world that we have become numb to it. Part of the reason that we do not realize it is that we have no awareness of any other spectrum of life and so have nothing with which to compare our own.

So let us consider our situation from the perspective of the gods. Imagine that we have a rainbow-like "light-body" like those possessed by beings in the realm of the gods. It is a non-physical body of light that enables us to fly through space where ever we move or travel. There is no darkness around us and no need for the light of sun or moon, as our own body-light illuminates the area around us. There is no physical pain and pressure as our body is immaterial , intangible, and indestructible. We enjoy it for years. Then one day this light-body suddenly changes into a body of flesh, bone and blood wrapped in a bag of skin and filled with all kinds of filth. We cannot move except by measuring the ground with the two bone-poles of the legs, step by step. We cannot see anything if there is no light from other sources. We could easily be crushed , smashed flat, pierced through, broken into parts, or cut into pieces, never to heel or walk again, if we do not carefully watch, avoid, and negotiate everything all the time. This would be an intolerable form of suffering.

Of course, the gods happiness cannot compare to the joy of the ultimate state.

- TULKU THONDUP