Quotes Tagged "suffering"
Bhikkhus, what is meant by ‘pursuing the past’? To pursue the past means to lose yourself in thoughts about what you looked like in the past, what your feelings were then, what rank and position you held, what happiness or suffering you experienced then. Giving rise to such thoughts entangles you in the past. “Bhikkhus, what is meant by ‘losing yourself in the future’? To lose yourself in the future means to lose yourself in thoughts about the future. You imagine, hope, fear, or worry about the future, wondering what you will look like, what your feelings will be, whether you will have happiness or suffering. Giving rise to such thoughts entangles you in the future.
Don’t resist your pain, embrace it. It is normal to run away from pain – to hate it, to question why it is there in the first place. That is when – and how – you invite suffering into your Life. You suffer only because you wish your Life is different from what it is. Instead, accept your pain. When you hold up your pain and feel its intensity, you will realize that it is teaching you unputdownable Life lessons. At this time, if you choose to express your feelings through your art – anything…painting, music, cooking, gardening, writing…do whatever makes you come alive – magic and beauty will flow through you! Look around you – every work of art out there is a product of someone’s pain and their choice to express how they felt while enduring it. So, employ your pain to create something of lasting value and relevance! The world is waiting…
Acceptance does not necessarily help you solve a problem. But acceptance helps you immensely in dealing with it, in making you non-suffering. When you resist a situation, you are fighting it. Whatever you resist, will fight back. Such is Life. All your suffering comes from wishing that your Life is different from what it is. So, in addition to the intense pain that the situation has thrown up, you have now invited suffering into your Life by wishing that the painful situation did not exist in the first place. Instead, embrace the situation. Gracefully accept your Life for what it is. Then, slowly, very slowly, time heals, peeling off layer after layer of suffering, as you understand the futility of prolonged sadness. As your suffering and sadness dissolve, you feel repaired, happy and at peace with your new reality.
Happiness is not quite about always getting what you want, or about buying stuff which you can afford, or even about being understood, recognized and celebrated by those around you. There will always be times in Life when you won’t get what you want, when you can’t even afford what you think are the basics and when you will imagine that the whole world is conspiring against you. Happiness is a decision. It is your decision. When you decide to be happy, the circumstances don’t matter. Happiness, then, is to be accepting of the Life you have, while celebrating it for what it is, and learning to be non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering.
Extraordinary pain in Life is not a sign of past sins catching up as some would want you to believe. It is, interestingly, a sign of extraordinary grace arriving in your Life. Pain is inevitable – you don’t get to choose it; if it was a choice then, well, all of humanity would like to avoid any pain. So, painful episodes just happen in Life, but they happen only for a reason. And that reason is always revealed in hindsight, upon deep reflection. If you think back, you will discover that any event that caused you pain, only left you stronger, wiser and happy. That’s the grace I am talking about. Pain, in essence, helps you evolve. It hurts you surely, but doesn’t harm you, and, unfailingly, leaves you blessed!
Whatever be your current reality, you are never in conflict with it. Life is happening to you. And you are going with the flow. A health challenge, a break-up, the loss of a loved one, a career-related complication, a messy financial situation, whatever you are dealing with, you are doing pretty fine living with what is. However, the moment your mind plays up an expectation that your Life must be different from what it is now, suffering kicks in. So, clearly, suffering comes from expectations. And you cause your expectations. The solution, therefore, to avoid suffering is to drop all expectations. Embrace your current reality, do what you can do in the given context and keep moving…
When you are wronged by someone, you have two options: either fight back or walk away. Now, if you can forgive and move on, walk way. But if you will grieve and suffer forever that feeling of having been violated and short-changed, fight. But don’t fight if it will make you wallow in a maze of debilitating emotions – anger, grief, fear, insecurity, worry, hatred…such a fight that drains you of all your goodness, and which leaves you cold and numb, is simply not worth it. But if you don’t fight the good fight, understandably, the cause will be lost. And that’s sacrilege. So, the key is to practice detached determination. Fight with focus and strategy and fight calmly, happily! Fight with detachment – don’t cling on to your desired outcomes, don’t set deadlines. Simply fight. When you fight the good fight, with equanimity and a sense of Purpose, the outcome never matters. The fact that you stood up and fought does.