The train was almost empty, the kind of late-night ride where time stretches, where the world outside becomes nothing but streaks of light slipping past the window. I sat near the back, watching the reflection of my own face flicker against the dark.
Across from me, a man shifted in his seat. He looked restless, tapping his fingers against his knee, checking his phone, staring at nothing. His body was still, but his mind was moving—fast, urgent, unsatisfied. He looked like someone waiting for something. Or maybe someone who had everything but still felt like something was missing.
I knew that feeling.
There was a time when my happiness was always tied to the next thing. The next trip, the next job, the next moment that would finally make everything fall into place. I was always looking forward, always reaching, always convinced that just beyond my grasp was the thing that would make it all make sense. But the horizon never gets closer. The more you chase, the further it moves.
Wanting is a quiet kind of suffering, the kind you don’t notice until it’s too late. The kind that convinces you it’s normal, that everyone feels this way, that life is supposed to be a series of small, temporary satisfactions. But the truth is, the more you want, the more you suffer.
Happiness isn’t found in getting what you want. It’s found in needing less.
Desire is Suffering
People don’t think of desire as suffering. They think of it as drive, ambition, hunger. Something good. Something necessary. But wanting creates a gap between where you are and where you think you should be. And that gap? That’s where suffering lives.
Most people spend their lives running from one desire to the next, mistaking temporary relief for happiness. They buy things, achieve things, chase things, thinking that once they get there, it will be enough. But enough never comes. One desire is replaced by another. The list never ends.
The world tells us to want more. More success, more experiences, more validation, more everything. But more is an illusion. More is a trap. The people who have everything still want something. And the people who have nothing can still be content.
Happiness isn’t in the having. It’s in the letting go.
Happiness is a Skill
Most people think happiness is something that happens to them. That it’s a product of circumstance, of luck, of having the right life at the right time. But happiness isn’t an accident. It’s a practice. A skill. Something you learn, something you choose.
It doesn’t come from achievements. It doesn’t come from money or relationships or external success. It comes from how you see the world, from how you train your mind to respond to what is, rather than what could be.
I used to think I needed a reason to be happy. Now I understand that happiness doesn’t need a reason. It exists in the space between moments, in the pauses, in the quiet. It’s in the breath between words, in the feeling of sunlight on your skin, in the way the wind moves through the trees.
It’s not something you wait for. It’s something you cultivate.
The Stillness Beneath the Noise
Meditation taught me that most of my suffering came from my own mind. The endless thoughts, the constant planning, the running dialogue that never let me just be.
When you sit still long enough, you start to see how loud everything is. The mind jumps from one thing to another, restless, impatient, always looking for something to hold onto. But if you watch closely, you realize the thoughts are just clouds passing by. You don’t have to chase them. You don’t have to follow.
There is peace in stillness, in the quiet space beneath the noise. The world is always moving, always pushing, always demanding more. But underneath it all, there is a place inside you that does not change, that does not need, that does not suffer.
That place is always there. Most people never find it. They are too busy searching for something else.
Lessons in Letting Go
- Desire creates suffering. The less you want, the freer you become.
- Happiness is not external. It’s a skill, not an achievement.
- Silence teaches you. The mind is loud; peace is found beneath the noise.
- Nothing is missing. Everything you think you need is just a story. Let it go.
- The present moment is enough. The more you resist, the more you suffer. The moment you stop chasing, you arrive.
There’s a kind of beauty in things as they are. Not in their perfection, not in their completion, but in their impermanence, their rough edges, their quiet presence. It is an art of seeing that beauty—the art of embracing what is, rather than longing for what isn’t.
We are taught to believe that happiness is somewhere out there, waiting for us in the future. But wabi-sabi reminds us that happiness is already here, in the cracks and imperfections of daily life. In the chipped teacup. In the fading light. In the silence between words.
To chase less is to feel more. To want less is to see more. To stop running is to finally arrive.
The Train at Midnight
The man across from me checked his phone again, sighed, tapped his fingers against his knee. The doors opened at the next stop, and he stood, stepping into the night with the same restless energy he had carried onto the train.
I stayed in my seat, watching the doors close, feeling the hum of the engine beneath my feet. The city blurred past, neon lights flickering against the glass.
I had nowhere to be. No urgent desires pulling me forward. Just the quiet rhythm of the train, the breath in my lungs, the stillness of being exactly where I was.
And for the first time in a long while, that was enough.
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