Headspace Studios. Hello and welcome back to Radio Headspace Space and to this brand new week. It's Eve here. I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the fact that life can be full of beauty and joy,

but also pain and loss.

And it then got me thinking about some of the essential philosophies that really underpin

the traditional teachings of meditation and mindfulness.

So this week, I wanted to spend a bit of time going back in history and sharing what I have learned

from studying these practices and how they have supported me both in times

of great joy but also in my darkest moments. So today, I'll be breaking down one of the

core teachings or truths as it's described in the traditional texts, and that is, in life, we will experience suffering.

The good news is there are some remedies to the suffering that we experience.

So let's start with a little history.

Meditation and mindfulness have been around for over 2,600 years. A headspace,

we like to say that's a lot of research and development. And originally, these practices came from

South Asia, where a man named Sudatha Gottemah lived in the Himalayan foothills.

His father was a chief and shielded his son from the outside world for many years.

Sadatha lived a life of ease and luxury, never having to deal with pain or loss or fear.

When he was older, he got married and had a son,

and for the first time ever in his life,

he ventured outside of the palace walls.

What he saw shocked him terribly.

He witnessed a sick person, a dying person, and a corpse being taken to the burning ground.

Sadatha was understandably perplexed by witnessing so much suffering,

...