Buddhist teachings are fundamentally concerned with the arising of suffering and the cessation of suffering. The essence of Buddhism lies in understanding suffering, through which one comes to know the laws of life and the nature of all phenomena in the universe, and seeks a path to eradicate suffering and attain happiness.
Buddhist teachings provide an in-depth study of suffering and its causes. One key concept is the Eight Kinds of Suffering: the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, death, separation from that which we love, association with that which we hate, inability to fulfill our desires, and the suffering from the instability of the five skandhas.
The suffering of separation from that which we love refers to the emotional pain that arises when we lose someone, something, or a state of being we deeply cherish.
As ordinary beings, we all hold the notions of ‘I/me’ and ‘mine’. The ‘I’ is the subject of conscious awareness, the perceived master of our thoughts and inner experience. ‘Mine’ refers to what belongs to the self - possession, status, reputation, relationships, and more. When the I lose what is mine, such as through the death of a loved one or breaking up of a relationship, or when what is possessed change, such as children growing up or an extramarital affair, one experiences the suffering of separation from that which we love.
