I’m sorry that their was no post yesterday. I thought I’d take the holiday off. I hope you all took the time to feel thankful for the great Martin Luther King, Jr. He did so much for so many, and I look forward to interviewing him.

Today’s post is about suffering. It’s very relevant given how MLK has helped us alleviate the suffering of so many.

We all suffer in some measure of our life. That’s what the human experience is about, at least somewhat: To let go of the pain it causes and embrace the lessons it offers to make us the best version of ourselves. Tomorrow, Erik will share solutions for our suffering. Pretty dang important!

Me: So what is the spiritual root behind all suffering? Is it attachment? Is it resistance? Sometimes I think resistance plays a big part.

Erik: Yes, attachment is behind it all like the need to play the victim so that you can get attention and sympathy or the attachment of being right so your ego has that “I’m right” identity, the attachment to expectations which are sometimes dashed—a lot! (He rolls his eyes.)

Me: So attachment is the root. What about resistance? How does that come into play?

Erik: It’s the resistance to detaching to the shit that doesn’t serve you and that keeps you in the past instead of the Now. Resistance sometimes can be confused with maintaining boundaries, so I don’t want it to seem like all resistance is bad. Can we say, “stubbornness” instead?

Me: Sure.

Erik: Resistance can be done consciously like you’re totally awake. “I fucking refuse to do that shit!” It might be for a really great reason, but stubbornness is something you can do on a conscious level, but for all the wrong reasons. We’re getting into semantics here, though. “I refuse to help you because blah, blah, blah,” and everyone around you is like, “Wow. That’s really weird.”

Me: And resistance can be positive like, “I refuse to let you into my house to slay my children!”

Erik: Yeah, yeah. Stubbornness is ego-driven. It’s the driver.

Me: It’s like permanently being in toddlerhood.

Erik claps his hands and laughs.

Erik: That should be in bold words. There’s a t-shirt right there, Mom.

Me: So, to sum it up, the root of all suffering is stubbornly hanging onto something that doesn’t serve you.

Erik: Yes, whether it’s a belief, a past experience, an assumption, a need to be right or superior, a role and lots of other things.

This is a short one, I know. I promise tomorrow’s will be longer!