I agree that it's the metaphorical second, third, fourth, and fifth arrows that I shoot at myself that create unnecessary pain. Pain is part of life -- examined or unexamined, there will be pain. We'll never eliminate pain -- there is no such thing as painless living Suffering, on the other hand, is how we bear the pain, deal with it, relate to it. Pain and suffering are different and related phenomena. The challenge is to suffer or carry our pain in a way that is efficient and economical. The pain will still be there -- it's just more bearable if we bear it wisely and don't make it worse by our way of bearing it. I'm not recalling a specific experience, but this awareness helps me to more efficiently suffer any pain. How we experience our pain is important because it is part of how we suffer our pain, and it can help us to suffer it in that way that doesn't create additional and unnecessary pain.
On Mar 10, 2013 david doane wrote :