There are no good terms in English to describe "trivial" suffering, gnawing frustration or thwarted desires (whether it be an unrequited love or sexual desire, a friend who disappoints you, or a material want you can't have right now, like the latest home renovation or a flatscreen or whatever). The Pali term dukkha (Sanskrit duhkha) encompasses all of this (and "real" suffering too): attachments unsatiated and unsatisfied. And yet, the satisfaction of attaining such things itself leads to dissatisfaction, as the fulfillment of the desire doesn't result in quietude of the passion behind the desire. So what are we? Wanting and desiring machines? As a friend of mine from Missouri used to say, that's five pounds of shit in a three-pound bag.
And no matter what we want or don't want, and whether we get it or not, we will all be gone in a fraction of time that is terrifyingly tiny: and yet we think that these things have substance? Well, let's get real: it's not remotely real! Our little lives are not real, and everything that hurts us—or conversely, gives us pleasure—is no more substantive than the beep of a microwave (and I hear beeping that now says my soup is now done).
All these things are crazy and without substantive: completely empty. You are not "you." You are really All—and that's beyond what you can conceive and beyond what anyone can conceive. Your daily concerns—all the comings and goings—and even your own identify as you, will pass. But the genuine you, the you that you may only touch in a way when you're in deep sleep, the you that is beyond the knowable, will persist. And so, I have no fear of death, nor should you. I used to cling to myself, and now I can barely comprehend why I ever did. I really feel free and without fear. I feel like it's a kind of graduation from school! I feel an ease with the thought. It's just another thought.
Be you, but release the trivial you, so you can really be you.
— Gabriel Fenteany, March 21, 2016
