As we go deeper on the spiritual path—whether through yoga, meditation, or self-inquiry—we often discover a paradox: We feel more peace… but we also feel more pain. The highs become transcendent. The lows, unbearable. We start to feel everything more intensely. This intensity is not a mistake. It is the heart of the path.

The Buddha says: you have felt more grief than the ocean holds water. This isn't just poetry. It's a spiritual earthquake. This is not to depress us, but to awaken us—to stir our hearts. This stirring is known in Buddhism as saṁvega.

This feeling—though unsettling—is a sacred catalyst. It's what Prince Siddhartha felt when he saw old age, sickness, and death. It's what every sincere practitioner eventually encounters: not just the suffering of the world, but the raw truth of our entanglement in it.

You begin to see the pain in pleasure—how even joy is tinged with impermanence.

You see the subtle violence of craving, the ache beneath distraction.

Your old ways of coping no longer work.

This is grace, not failure. Because only when we see duḥkha clearly, can we begin to walk a path beyond it. These are cracks in the illusion. And through those cracks, truth pours in. The practice is not to patch them up, but to stay open.

Yoga gives us a container:

Asana: to ground the body as emotion rises

Prāṇāyāma: to stabilize the nervous system as old energy releases

Meditation: to witness pain without collapsing into it

Bhakti: to open the heart in devotion rather than despair

And ultimately, viveka—discernment—so that we can feel the pain of the world without losing our place in it.

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