Life Is Suffering

Our evolutionary heritage presents a fascinating paradox. The human brain—an exquisitely calibrated survival instrument refined across countless generations—evolved within environments of scarcity and perpetual threat. This remarkable organ, optimized for detecting danger and navigating scarcity, now operates in contexts radically different from those that shaped it. We’ve engineered a world of unprecedented material abundance where many of us, particularly in developed economies, enjoy comforts unimaginable to our ancestors or even to recent generations. Consider that widespread indoor plumbing—a convenience we now consider fundamental—became standard in American homes only during the late 1800s, a mere eyeblink in our evolutionary timeline.

Our digital landscape perpetuates a particularly insidious myth: somewhere, certain individuals navigate life with effortless grace, untouched by the struggles that define most human experience. This carefully curated illusion—sustained through filtered social media feeds, selective storytelling, and commercial narratives—creates a phantom standard against which we measure our messy reality. My personal journey resembles what I’d call “productive stumbling”—a series of missteps that somehow propelled me forward rather than backward. This trajectory of failing upward may represent the most favorable path available to any of us. Even those occupying society’s most envied positions acknowledge profound struggles beneath the polished surface. When billionaires lament their difficulties (though their complaints ring somewhat hollow when contrasted with material abundance that could sustain generations), they inadvertently confirm a universal truth: struggle remains democratic, touching lives across every socioeconomic stratum.