Sadness is the attachment-caring feeling. It comes when what matters to us turns out differently than what we imagined, hoped, or worked for. And it comes most powerfully to those people who imagine, hope, and work for the most.
Sadness is the feeling that presents us with the paradox of desire, love, and compassion.
It is the feeling that presents us with the paradox of desire, love, and compassion. We are created to have desire, love, and compassion, and because it is so, we are going to have to face and feel sadness. Sadness is the effect of living in a place of inevitable impermanence and loss, while we also face living how we are created. While we crave to connect to relationships that grow without pain, attachment-caring that is permanent, love that doesn’t hurt, and endeavors that always succeed, people who have the courage of sadness know these things cannot occur and attach-care anyway.
The more we are willing to feel sadness, the more courageous we are about letting all that is life matter to us.
The more we are willing to feel sadness, the more courageous we are about letting all that is life matter to us, to the heart of who we really are.
People who will allow sadness of heart tolerate change better than others, risk more than others, are more congruent than others, and are more dependable than others who block their capacity to let life “get to them.” Their lives and what they do matter to them, and therefore, others’ lives matter to them. People who have the courage of sadness tend to be the most involved in shaping and growing their dreams into what they can become, which benefits others because of the attachment-caring. They have the capability of great empathy, knowing how close we all are to the experiences of everyone else.