The Suffering of Being Human

Nguyen Du once wrote inFuneral oration for all living beingsA sentence that I remember every July:

"Alas for all living beings!…"

A call to open the heart with compassion. Not choosing who to pity. Not categorizing who to save. Simply seeing that in this life, there are too many lives lost, too many destinies abandoned. And in his words, I clearly hear the sigh of a nation that has weathered storms, endured poverty, war, and partings without a chance to say goodbye.

He wrote:

"A lonely soul…"

Just a few words, yet so cold. Cold like a rented room at the end of the month, when one looks at their wallet and their bleak, uncertain future. Cold like a marriage where two people sit on two mountains of wealth but each lives in their own world. Cold like a phone that has been silent for a long time without a call on a day you long for someone to check on you. There are people who live as if they have been forgotten. There are people who die without even a single incense stick offered to them. And there are people who are still breathing, but inside, their life has already ceased.

I'm not telling you these things to make you afraid of life. I'm telling them so that you...I feel I am not alone in this life.Because suffering has a cruel habit: it makes us think that"I'm the only one like that."

The truth is: everyone carries a scar. Some hide it in their work. Some hide it in their laughter. Some hide it in their filial piety. Some hide it in their lighthearted jokes. And some hide it by becoming irritable, angry, and saying incredibly harsh and hurtful things because they have no other way to defend themselves.

This book is my small promise to you:I will not turn away and leave; I must write to see and feel my life and ours on this journey of life in the most honest and objective way possible..

I don't have a formula to end your suffering. I only have the genuine observational experience of someone who used to be a doctor, and the honesty of a human being. I believe that what alleviates suffering isn't the right advice, but rather...a look of feeling, empathy, and compassion.Truly. At the right time. In the right place, reflecting the suffering of human life.

Sometimes, "empathy" isn't about conquering the past. It's about learning to carry it with you without becoming emotionally detached. Sometimes, strength isn't about forcing yourself to be strong. It's about daring to acknowledge it.I am tiredSometimes, maturity isn't about knowing how to endure more. It's about knowing...Please help.