It’s hard to be a human being
when you seem to be trapped inside yourself
with the rest of the world out there, on the other side
and you feel insignificant and fragile, like a tiny island
surrounded by a vast, roaring ocean
that’s threatening to submerge you.
It’s hard to be a human being
when you’re forced to share your inner world
with a crazy, whirling thought-machine
that never stops churning and chattering
and makes you fear things that can’t hurt you
and desire things that can’t make you happy.
It’s hard to be a human being
when there are impulses inside you that you don’t understand
and that don’t seem to have an outlet
as if they were meant for someone else, or for another world
and have attached themselves to you by mistake.
It’s hard to be a human being
when the world is so chaotic that you can’t find your right direction
can’t find a life that aligns with your inner purpose
and you feel inauthentic and unfulfilled
like an actor who hates the role he plays.
But the strangest thing is
how easy it is
to step outside this world of discord.
The strangest thing is
that this suffering that seems so dense and deep-rooted
is only superficial, and insubstantial.
The hardship of being human
is the pain of separation –
the incompleteness of a lonely, fragile fragment
who was once part of the whole
and longs for unity again.
Let go of your autonomy, and let your mind fall silent
until you feel yourself reconnecting to the whole.
And then your suffering will begin to ease
like a passing storm, that gives way to stillness.
And then you will sense
the security of belonging, the joy of participating
the lightness of life living through you
the inner strength that wholeness brings.
Then you will remember
how easy human life was meant to be.