In order to experience bliss and contentment, we must not only be willing to live in the present—not in the past or looking toward the future—but also to accept that pain is a real possibility, if not a probability. This is not to say that joy must come with pain, but instead, that pain could arrive in the midst of joy and this fact scares us senseless. We would rather half live than risk encountering unspeakable pain at the core of indescribable delight. We erroneously believe that being a perpetual emotional flatline is better than experiencing the highs and the lows of living.
