A central tenet of Buddhism is that ‘life is suffering”, or at least it seemed to be. Since Buddha is believed to have lived 2,600 years ago, the actual word he is supposed to have used was dukkha not suffering, with a very rough (and quite arguable) translation to ephemeral or temporal, impermanence. A system in constant flux constantly attempting to live in homeostasis. An unstated uncomfort zone.

“There’s a pain in my chest that I can’t describe,
It takes me down and leaves me there,
When I talk to the night I can feel its stare,
It creeps inside and meets me there.”

Rüfüs Du Sol’s ever-popular song On My Knees remains one of the most favored videos featured here. Their music, at once an artful (if enigmatic) blending of pomposity and attrition. What the one hand gives the other takes away, and a third gives back again with emphasis. Tyrone explains, “We are – all of us – living in this transitional moment right now and we wanted to focus on the hope that the future holds for us all. To focus on the light at the end of this tunnel.”

Epic and sprawling, the song is an ever-brightening anthem to gratitude, marking an appreciation of having arisen to live another day. Another day to love, another day to share, to give, to receive, to fuck, to eat warm cake with chocolate frosting and be gracious for every second, including the bad ones because they are those that allow us to better appreciate our highs.

“There’s a pain in my chest that I can’t describe,
I close my eyes but the day’s the same,
There’s a thorn in my side when I hear my name,
It makes me hide,
I feel the shame.”

Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress: Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. 

_{Theravada monk and scholar Thanissaro Bhikkhu}

“At least I’m alive.”

~

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Photo courtesy of 303Magazine.com