Suffering Is Optional

The drought is finally getting to the katsura trees here in the Temple. The have stood silently and steadily beyond the torii gate that leads into the gardens all summer without complaint. But just now I see one solitary yellow leaf flutter to the ground. Now another. Looking closer I see that the leaves toward the end of the katsuras’ branches are turning brown around the edges and the grass below is already dotted with their yellowed heart-shaped leaves.

Autumn is coming though we haven’t yet reached mid-August.

All the trees here in eastern Massachusetts are stressed. I was going to write that they are ‘suffering’, but I don’t think they suffer in the same way we humans do. These trees are used to changing weather conditions. For all the decades of their lives; some summers are warmer and drier, some are wetter and colder. And while the long-term pattern of warming is a new factor that is beginning to cause problems in Massachusetts forests, the yearly variation of weather is not a big deal to these mighty trees.

We humans too are used to changing conditions through the days and decades of our lives and yet we still find reasons complain. And we do indeed suffer. We suffer from the belief that things should not change. We are somehow affronted that we should be confronted with difficult problems and painful situations.

Sometimes I remind my coaching clients that solving problems is not a path to a future with no problems, but rather simply part of being human. The point is not just to deal with this problem, but to learn more about ourselves and to grow in our capacity to meet our lives fully. I suppose the advanced practice is to begin to even enjoy our problems.

Our problems are our life. Not that things are always difficult, but the problems of our lives are the points where our knowing encounters something beyond itself. If our goal is to feel competent and wise and calm, these encounters with the unknown and unplanned for are very disturbing.

A friend recently told me that he has finally realized that his To-Do list is of infinite length. He says he used to work hard to complete his list and be frustrated when new items appeared. Now that he knows the list has no end, he says he is more comfortable with what gets done and what doesn’t.

When the summer is dry, the ferns die back and the trees drop their leaves early. No problem. Suffering is optional.