Happy emotions come and go, so do unhappy ones. These are, in themselves, not signs of suffering, potential or actual. They are signs of living.
suffering
giving up success and failure,
there is nothing to regret
not distinguishing pain from suffering is itself suffering
to be utterly without hope is also to be utterly without despair
Earlier I wrote — “the peace that passeth understanding can’t be understood.”
What’s worse, it can’t be experienced.
Then what, we may ask, is it good for?
And, of course, the answer is — it’s good for Nothing.
suffering includes the vain hope that right now things can be other than they are
suffering comes from our attachment to preferences (or desires), not their occurrence
(with thanks to Seng-ts’an and Richard Clarke)
we can accept our pain without liking it even though the pain remains until it, as all things, passes
the peace that passeth understanding can’t be understood
without One, how does one
bear being without
some one in one’s life?
without guilt, regrets are nothing to regret; they’re just regrets
suffering can be seen as the embodiment of certain inopportune descriptions and explanations about life, particularly one’s own life
all things arise spontaneously; resisting this only perpetuates suffering
the notion that you are the author of your life, however popular and seemingly useful, is a basic ingredient in the recipe for suffering
the illusion of control is the most fundamental (and cruelest) illusion of all
a life organized around accumulating power is a life spent trying to control the outcomes in life
the cost of inauthentic living is likely despair before death
can the end of suffering mean the end of pain (and, less happily, pleasure)?