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The universal experiences of birth, sickness, old age, and death can serve as our teachers, interrupting assumptions that are not helpful in our journey • they can open our eyes to the ways in which we can either increase or reduce our suffering • birth refers to our literal physical birth, but it also refers to being thrust into new situations • we feel vulnerable but fresh; it is exhilarating but scary • the more rigidly we hold on to the assumption that our world should go on in a familiar, predictable way, the more we suffer • what is interrupted as we get older is the assumption of youthful vigor • another quality of aging is staleness; we begin with freshness, but eventually we lose interest • sickness challenges the assumption that we should always be able to enjoy full health • it provides the opportunity to investigate on the spot our state of mind when we encounter an illness • more generally it speaks to the sense that things just strike out of nowhere • "Why me?" What about "Why not me?" • Death refers to our literal death, and also to the fact that nothing lasts; it interrupts our assumptions of eternity • death also relates to our fear of the unknown, to the pain of wanting things to last
By Judy Lief4.8
4949 ratings
The universal experiences of birth, sickness, old age, and death can serve as our teachers, interrupting assumptions that are not helpful in our journey • they can open our eyes to the ways in which we can either increase or reduce our suffering • birth refers to our literal physical birth, but it also refers to being thrust into new situations • we feel vulnerable but fresh; it is exhilarating but scary • the more rigidly we hold on to the assumption that our world should go on in a familiar, predictable way, the more we suffer • what is interrupted as we get older is the assumption of youthful vigor • another quality of aging is staleness; we begin with freshness, but eventually we lose interest • sickness challenges the assumption that we should always be able to enjoy full health • it provides the opportunity to investigate on the spot our state of mind when we encounter an illness • more generally it speaks to the sense that things just strike out of nowhere • "Why me?" What about "Why not me?" • Death refers to our literal death, and also to the fact that nothing lasts; it interrupts our assumptions of eternity • death also relates to our fear of the unknown, to the pain of wanting things to last

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