When we have good things in our life, we worry that they will not last and start imagining bad things happening to us. When we have bad things in our life, we wish for them go away and constantly yearn for good things. We resist reality. This is our suffering / dissatisfaction with Reality.
There is a way to end this suffering. We suffer because we demand that Reality be something other than what it is. If we stop believing in our thoughts that make these demands, our suffering will end immediately.
The 5 Witnesses that testify to our suffering are:
- Fear: The worrying that something bad will happen to us
- Desire: The wish to attain something for oneself
- Anger / Frustration: The inability to attain something we like
- Grief: The loss of something that we value
- Envy: The wish to covet something belonging to another
When we are fail to listen to the testimony of our 5 Witnesses, and honor them for showing us our suffering, they transform into the 5 Inner Demons:
- Panic: The wish to do everything to avoid a certain outcome
- Possessiveness: The wish to own everything that is desired
- Rage: The wish to destroy everything that poses an obstacle
- Depression: The wish to reject everything, including one’s life
- Jealousy: The wish to deprive someone else of what he or she has, even if one can never obtain that thing
The 5 Inner Demons multiply our suffering and open the way to darkness.
