Suffering

The first of the "four noble truths" of Buddhism is dukkha, or suffering, disappointment, discontent.   Psychologist Carl Jung said, "There is no consciousness without pain."   It isn't hard to sit in meditation.  What is difficult is what we notice about ourselves, the stuff we'd rather not look at. 

But Buddhism starts off with the message to pay attention to the hard parts.  Meditation is not an escape.  Instead, it is the discipline to sit with everything,  with joy and sorrow.   It is the wisdom of the middle way:  not wallowing in pleasure, but not wallowing in self pity either,  

Suffering is a teacher.  Inherent in suffering is already the knowledge of something else.  Inherent in sorrow is the joy having known something or someone.    To go through sorrow is to discover that joy has never left.   

Joy and sorrow, life and death, in-breath and out-breath:  such 'dualities' inform each other.  They exist in relationship.  If we try to have all of one or the other, the result is suffering.