The Falsity of Relief

When we suffer, we start to hope that our pain will abate. While there is nothing improper about that, we ought to remember that any relief has to be seen in the proper light.

With relief, there is the generation of expectation. Such a thing is more pronounced the more we suffer. Therefore, the notion that relief is a harbinger of more is likely false. With the easing of our pain, we start to think, and believe that we should garner additional resources, more comfort, more love, more wealth and so on. What effectively happens is that we switch from the reality of pain and suffering to the falsity of relief. And with such a switch, we start to put in place the accumulation of everything that makes us think that we ought to and even deserve better, and more.

There is likely no wrong in working with and preserving the resources we have at our disposal. What is unwholesome is the strength we assume we obtain from readying ourselves for increasing possessions, our sense of self and our reliance on whatever confers certainty.

That is the trap that relief creates.

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