Suffering is comprised of three basic human emotions: Anger, Sadness and Fear. Anger is the feeling of having been wronged. Sadness is the feeling of loss. Fear is the feeling of worry surrounding the potential for loss. We spend most of our lives bouncing between these three emotions and so we spend most of our lives in a state of suffering. To escape suffering, it's helpful to consider it through the lens of time.

Suffering is a time machine. It removes us from the present and transports us to a place in the past or the future. When we are angry, we are hurt by something that has happened to us. When we are sad, we are hurt by something we no longer have. Both of these emotions are experienced in the past and so they remove our minds and our hearts from the present moment. Fear is a bit different––but just as destructive––in that it is experienced in the future. Fear prevents us from enjoying what we have in the present because we worry about not having it in the future.

To achieve greater presence in our lives, we must develop a greater awareness of our emotions and where they place us in time: Anger (past), Sadness (past), Fear (future). It doesn't mean we can't feel these emotions. It's impossible not to feel them. But, we can learn to limit our time feeling them. We can choose to step out of the time machine.