Yet it is also hard to live the householder's life; there is pain when associating with those among whom one feels no companionship. To wander uncommitted is always going to be difficult; why not renounce the deluded pursuit of pain?
Dhammapada 302
The Buddha uttered this verse to a monk who had been indulging in deluded feelings of self-pity: Surely nobody is having as hard a time as I am. Fortunately for him, this monk received a wise reflection in just the right way at just the right time so he could see what he was doing, and let go. When we are not attentive in the present moment we tend to blame our misfortune outwardly. Or we blame ourselves, inwardly. Either way we increase the pain by forgetting to expand awareness and fully accommodate the suffering. Suffering is the right response to our resisting reality. If we don’t cling, we don’t suffer.
Suffering is the message. It is not something going wrong. We don’t have to get rid of suffering; we need to understand it.
With Metta,
Bhikkhu Munindo
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