We suffer because we have senses and the more sensitive we are the more we are likely to suffer.
The question is, how can we find the way out of suffering?
It is curious how suffering is reduced or stops, at least temporarily, if we are helping others. The more desparate thier condition, the more we feel for them, the more active we are in helping, the less we suffer ourselves.
Whenever I can’t have what I want, or can’t avoid what I don’t want, I suffer. I feel disappointed or frustrated, angry, frightened. resentful. The longer I feel any of this the more intense the feeling becomes.
If I wanted it very strongly then I probably still want it – even though I can’t have it.
Not being able to have what I want leaves me upset and dissatisfied.
If this happens again, many times, the suffering I go through mounts up.
There is an ancient understanding that this holding on to what I want when I can’t have it is the fundamental cause of suffering. This together with holding on my rejection of what I want to avoid by can’t.