The question of basic pain, or cosmic suffering, is not so much one of physical pain, but it is more like a basic ache, basic uncertainty, or basic neurosis. You feel fundamentally terrible and resentful that the world has cheated you. It is the basic pain of resentfulness, which aspirins cannot cure. The problem is that we are unable to work with reality properly and fully. We reflect constantly on society and the world. We wonder whether the sun and moon did not shine properly on us because clouds were in the way. We wish summer could be winter, and winter could be summer. When it is too hot, we think it should be too cold; when it is too cold, we think it should be too hot. We would like to control the cosmos, to have whatever we want! We want complete hospitality to be established.

From “Exposing Ego’s Dirty Tricks,” in Milarepa: Lessons from the Life and Songs of Tibet’s Great Yogi, page 63.

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