Does Love Cause Suffering?

”With attachment is suffering,” said the Buddhist monk. “Let go of attachment to people, places and things and you will suffer much less.”

“Yes, but because I love others,” I said, “Such as my family, I form attachments.“

“I understand," he said, "But when they are hurt or die, you will suffer immensely. Even in worry for them, you suffer.”

“True,” I answered. “But love is intimate and intimacy requires attachment.”

“But in attachment,,” he said, “You are trying to control others, of which you have no control, trying to control events of which you have no control.

“That’s true,” I said.

“But my life and maybe theirs would be so much poorer without attachment, even with the suffering it will bring. For love is the essence of life, without which none of us have a reason to be.”

“To love is to suffer,” I added. “But not to love is to suffer more.”

With Love To All ~ Dick