Day 11: The Four Beliefs Behind All Suffering

After years of watching my own mind — lying down, eyes open, observing my thoughts like waves — I came to see that almost all human suffering comes from just four core beliefs. They are not personal to you — every human being shares them to some degree. The first belief is that something is fundamentally wrong with your life, that you are behind or failing. The second is that something is wrong with your body and the world around you, that your physical self and your environment are not as they should be. The third is that you are separate from God, from source, from whatever you call the infinite. And the fourth is that you are separate from everyone else, fundamentally alone. That is the whole tree. When you watch your thoughts without judgment, you begin to see these roots clearly. And when you see them, they begin to loosen.