Sometimes Conditions Produce Happiness, Sometimes Suffering—Simply Witnessing

As we practice and become more accustomed to this understanding, we will gain stability. Then we will not be so influenced by what is going on around us. Sometimes conditions will come together in such a way to produce happiness, and sometimes conditions produce suffering. This is how it is in the human world—we are alternately happy or suffering, things go our way or do not go our way. As stability develops, we are less subject to the good and bad external events that inevitably create waves in life. Importantly, this does not mean we become numb or uncaring to life’s fluctuating circumstances but simply that we do not get caught in them. For a person who develops this level of stability in practice, it is almost like viewing the landscape from a moving car. You behold various formations or objects—some are beautiful, but some are not. You watch steadily, observing the rise and fall of events without them directly affecting your emotions. Your happiness and suffering do not depend on the pictures and images that you see in the landscape around you; you are simply witnessing without getting caught up in it.

Excerpt From
Loving Life As It Is
Chakung Jigme Wangdrak

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