Most Suffering Is Not Caused by Bad People

It’s Caused by Ordinary People with Unexamined Assumptions — Especially the Assumption of Separation

Most suffering on this planet is caused by a single unexamined assumption.

Most suffering on this planet is not created by evil people.

It is created by ordinary people — caring people, intelligent people — acting from assumptions they have never been invited to question. The most influential of these assumptions is so familiar that it rarely draws attention at all:

The assumption that we are separate.

Separate selves.

Separate groups.

Separate interests.

Separate lives.

This belief quietly shapes how we think, how we fear, how we justify harm, and how we try — often unsuccessfully — to fix the world.

The Assumption That Feels Like Reality

The sense of being a separate self feels obvious. “I am here. The world is out there.” Because it feels so natural, it often goes unexamined. But when we look closely at lived experience — not beliefs, not philosophies, not stories — something surprising appears.

Where exactly is this separate self?

Is it found in the body?

The body is a moving process — breath, circulation, sensation — all produced and constantly dependent on the world around it.

Is it found in the experience?

Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions arise, change, and disappear on their own.

Is it found in awareness itself?

Awareness has no edges, no personal ownership, no dividing line that says “this part is me and that part is not.” And no awareness has ever been found to exist without content - the object of experience.

The feeling of separation turns out to be a conclusion, not a fact.

How Separation Creates Suffering

When separation is assumed to be real, fear becomes logical. If I am truly separate, then I must protect myself. If my group is separate, it must compete.If others are separate, their suffering is easier to ignore — or justify.

From this single assumption arise:

• chronic anxiety and self-judgment

• us-versus-them thinking

• nationalism, racism, and identity conflict

• violence toward other humans and other species

• exploitation of the environment

None of this requires bad intentions. It only requires an unquestioned belief.

Why “Good People” Still Cause Harm

History shows this again and again:

Harm is rarely committed by people who see themselves as villains. Most harm is carried out by people who believe they are protecting something — a self, a family, a nation, an identity, a way of life. When separation feels real, compassion feels optional. When separation is unquestioned, violence can feel justified. This is not a moral failure. It is a perceptual one.

The Cost of Treating Symptoms Instead of the Cause

Most attempts to reduce suffering focus on behavior alone: laws, punishments, reforms, therapies, and incentives. While these can help temporarily, they rarely address the root. As long as the assumption of separation remains intact, fear regenerates. Conflict reappears in new forms. The same patterns repeat under different names. Trying to create peace without questioning separation is like trying to calm waves without noticing the wind.

A Different Kind of Invitation

The solution is not to adopt a new belief system or ideology. It is not to force compassion, suppress anger, or pretend differences don’t exist.

The invitation is simpler — and more radical:

To look directly.

To examine whether separation is actually present in experience, or only assumed in thought. When this assumption is honestly questioned, something shifts on its own. Compassion stops being a moral command and becomes a natural response. Care no longer feels like effort. Peace stops being an ideal and starts becoming practical.

What Happens When the Assumption Softens

When separation loosens, even slightly:

• others no longer feel fundamentally “other”

• empathy arises without instruction

• harming another feels less sensible, not more forbidden

• inner conflict begins to quiet

This is not spiritual philosophy.

It is an observable change in how life is experienced.

Seeing Clearly Is Not Passive — It’s Preventative

Questioning separation does not make people passive or indifferent. It makes harm harder to justify in the first place. A world that understands its shared nature does not need as much control, punishment, or coercion — because the impulse to harm has lost its foundation. Peace does not come from trying harder. It comes from seeing more clearly.

A Quiet Responsibility

If suffering is rooted in misunderstanding rather than evil, then clarity becomes a form of responsibility.

Not a responsibility to preach.

Not a responsibility to convert.

But a responsibility to invite honest looking — in ourselves first.

Because when the assumption of separation is seen through,

much of the suffering we thought was inevitable…

is no longer necessary.

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