Human Complexity: Why We are Vulnerable to Suffering

The human brain is designed to process information in a complex manner that integrates multiple ways of working with the data it receives. When that integration happens well, and true complexity is achieved, we are capable of such amazing things...art and love and states of expansion. The problem is the brain needs to internally have a sense of abundance in order to allocate the resource it needs to process in this more sophisticated, integrated manner. So in truth we only become fully complex when we are at ease enough (and believe there is enough resource for us), to be able to fully use our brains in this way. When the brain is stressed or senses danger, it would rather focus all its energy on staying alive, using more simple scripts (like fight or flight). (Example: you don't need to write a poem when running from a bear.)
This tendency of our brain to not fully process all information when under stress might be good for our survival, but it comes at a great cost. You see, even when our brain is not choosing to take the time to integrate the information across areas and networks more fully and completely....all of those channels of information still exist. In other words, we are still SUPER COMPLEX, even when we move into brain states that don't effectively manage that complexity. (Almost like if we were to eat a lot of food, but not put the energy into digesting it).
This is why our capacity for complexity is both our greatest strength, and also our most fundamental source of suffering. When we are fully resourced (by that I mean we feel supported by the group, we feel well rested and fed, we feel strong and empowered), then we are freed up to use our extra energy on wrangling all the disparate information streams into an integrated flow--one that produces self-understanding, insight, empathy, emotional regulation, creativity. But when we are choosing rather conserve our energy and only put it toward basic survival behaviors (ie when we feel scared or alone or stressed), then the information never gets handled and leads to a profound and painful inner (and subsequently outer) chaos.
We humans are interesting creatures! On the one hand we are so sophisticated, but when we don't have the abundance we need to manage how inwardly 'large' we are, it is easy to fall into chaos. That is why it is so important that we have empathy and understanding for what we might otherwise frame as weakness (or even evil!). And to appreciate how as a society we fight to reestablish an more harmonious inward organization of the information...through efforts such as art and culture and religion.