Seeking pleasure is a main ingredient of the human condition. We long for the good feels and when we find them, we do all that we can to keep them going, at whatever the cost. Think of the relationship you stayed in far past its expiration date. The memories of belonging and togetherness and love outweigh the reality of their absence. We cling to it, unready to face the loss. Or how about when you taste something delicious? What happens at the last bite? Do you reach for another? Constantly running in the opposite direction of pain, we end up causing more suffering. We are terrified to drop into the piercing heart ache of sorrow. But what we can begin to learn and embrace is the intensity and wakefulness of sorrow, of pain, of loss. The deep tones of sorrow are there to also bring you home to your birthright of aliveness. Let all of it wake you up. Let all of it direct you back to you being alive, let yourself be shaken and enlivened by emptiness.

Love,
Gavrila Nikhila