Meaningful Thoughts 0129 - Root of Heartache

Root of Heartache

“Expectation is the root of all heartache.” ~ William Shakespeare

I have illustrated how to remove pain that is caused by expectation. The following is an excerpt from the book “Wisdom on How to Live Life”.

Tom: Is there any other thing that can cause us pain?

Guru: Expectation.

Tom: What do you mean?

Guru: When we take up a body, life actually promises us nothing.

Tom: What do you mean?

Guru: As an example, when we took up a body, life never promised us how long it would last.

Tom: It didn’t?

Guru: So it may last for 25 years.

Tom: Then?

Guru: We may feel disappointed.

Tom: You mean we shouldn’t feel disappointed?

Guru: Life will last as long as it’ll last. So why should we feel disappointed?

Tom: So why do we feel disappointed?

Guru: Because we’ve been taught to expect life to last around 75 years and when it doesn’t, we feel disappointed.

Tom: Life is short.

Guru: But if we don’t have expectation, then there is no disappointment.

Tom: So disappointment is caused by expectation, and not by actual happening.

Guru: Right, disappointment comes when we compare a happening with some reference point.

Tom: Remove the reference point, then there is no disappointment.

Guru: Exactly, without expectation, we’ll just observe whatever happens is whatever happens.

~ Tommy Wong