The Nature of Suffering

In order to clear my mind I need to be able to see the suffering that is there. What is this suffering? If I ask myself, "what is the nature of my suffering?" I begin to see clearer. I begin to see everything as either sticky with my shoving or pushing or freely as it is. It just is this way. Everything that happens happens to awaken the world. We keep wanting the world to be different; to be permanent, to be self-fulfilling, to be what we want. This desire is at the root of the suffering. What is the nature of suffering? What is the nature of what happens right now. My leg is in a cast, my back aches...everything falls apart. It's funny. There is nothing to hold onto...nothing to make life into something permanent. Money doesn't do it, war doesn't do it, stuff doesn't do it, love doesn't do it, food doesn't do it...my broken bone is a teacher. My aching back is a teacher. My body is not separate from the falling apart, from change, from deterioration. Nothing is. Life is precious. LIfe is fragile. Death is sudden and strikes without warning.