We are conscious of various forms of suffering because we are attached to what we are not: ego or personality. The whole of ego, what we believe we are, is made of the following 4 elements: physical body, the so-called astral body (that is the emotion-desire-feeling aspect of the psyche), the mental body (or the conceptual mind aspect of the psyche) and the “I” (or sense of being a person). \
Because consciousness is identified with the whole of ego, while it is not that, it experiences various forms of suffering. The whole of ego is 100% impermanent and relative. It is entirely a part of this temporal, phenomenal world, where everything is relative. Happiness can be found in this world, but it will necessarily be a relative, impermanent, temporary happiness. Consciousness cannot find lasting and truthful happiness within anything the ego can be or experience. It will always be relative and temporary and thus be linked to suffering in some form, for all is relative.
Consciousness will become capable of experiencing true, not relative, but true joy, and other forms of truth once it realizes its true nature. It will then be obvious that nothing from this phenomenal world has the capacity of providing consciousness with anything truthful, for such is not its purpose. The purpose of the phenomenal world has to do with being a field of experience for consciousness and with being a means by which consciousness may grow, expand and express itself. But before consciousness can do that more and more truthfully, it is limited and imprisoned by this world. This is the fundamental problem authentic spirituality aims to solve and go beyond.