When the Buddha taught the Dharma he hoped that beings would free themselves from suffering. We swing from periods of good fortune to misfortune. When we are fortunate, there is a danger that we run our life on karmic overdraft and our merit runs out. When this happens, a life of good fortune is no longer supported. A fortunate human life is the rarest opportunity to free yourself from suffering.

How you are feeling now is a result of how you have reacted to what you have experienced in the past. The way we react is hardwired into us. It is a conditioned response. We each have a different stock of reactions that we have accumulated. If you change the way you react in the present, it will change how you will react in the future.

Giving back and breathing out can be an adventure. You have to put a significant amount of time and energy into your practice to see what you are truly capable of. Committing to a long retreat, for example, is an opportunity to change the make up of your mind in a permanent and enriching way that will serve you for the rest of your life. Burgs explains why now is the time to be a yogi.

How can I manage my life in such as a way that I feel comfortable and settled in the experiences that I am engaging in? Part of the answer is looking at taking care of yourself, being realistic and maintaining a balance at every level. Many people feel overwhelmed because they bring too much into their life – it is crowded out and there is no spaciousness. Rather than looking at how can I cope with this, look at how can I create more space?

The Buddha talked about beings that are volitional (driven by personal will) or functional (performing their function seamlessly in an awakened state). The transition from adolescence to adulthood is when we find out who we actually are by performing our function and not thinking we are special. A skilful human being moves like a stick through water and does not leave much of a trace. There are countless ways of being of service and performing our function.

The experience is what has a transformative effect in meditation. Seeing something we have not seen before can create a paradigm shift which helps us transform our suffering. Peak experiences are not the cessation of suffering. The real testament is the refinement of character which means you are not afflicted by what happens to you.

The Buddha was not interested in teaching the momentary cessation of suffering but finding a pathway to cut off at the root the habit of bringing ourselves to suffering. When he was a prince twenty-five centuries ago, he came to the conclusion that there is no happiness to be found in the pursuit of pleasure alone. After he renounced his worldly life and went forth, he also found that practicing austerity practices alone does not cut off the causes of suffering. When he became enlightened, he came to see the absolute truth of the conditioned process of life beyond the appearance of things.

We may not have recognised it but somewhere inside us is a longing for a sense of deep connection to what we are part of. We try to do meet this through ideas but this is not the same as being totally present. We need to turn up fully to our experience rather than get lost in thinking about it all and meditation is a process of gradually bringing to an end our sense of separation.