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Quotes about Suffering

The Mastery of Love [Book]

    Book Overview: In The Mastery of Love, Don Miguel Ruiz illuminates the fear-based beliefs and assumptions that undermine love and lead to suffering and drama in our relationships.  Using insightful stories to bring his message to life, Ruiz shows us how to heal our emotional wounds, recover the freedom and joy that are our birthright, and restore the spirit of playfulness that is vital to loving relationships.

    Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

      “You must forgive those who hurt you, even if whatever they did to you is unforgivable in your mind.  You will forgive them not because they deserve to be forgiven, but because you don’t want to suffer and hurt yourself every time you remember what they did to you.  It doesn’t matter what others did to you, you are going to forgive them because you don’t want to feel sick all the time.  Forgiveness is for your own mental healing.  You will forgive because you feel compassion for yourself.  Forgiveness is an act of self-love.” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz, The Mastery of Love

        “When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.” ~ Dalai Lama, via Life Hack

          “It is felt that a disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.” ~ Dalai Lama, via Life Hack

            “I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion and elimination of ignorance, selfishness and greed.” ~ Dalai Lama

              “There is one aspect to our experience of suffering that is of vital importance.  When you are aware of your pain and suffering, it helps you to develop your capacity for empathy, the capacity that allows you to relate to other people’s feelings and suffering.  This enhances your capacity for compassion towards others.  So as an aid in helping us connect with others, it can be seen as having value.” ~ Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

                “Man is ready and willing to shoulder any suffering as soon and as long as he can see a meaning in it.” ~ Victor Fankl, via The Art of Happiness

                  “As products of an imperfect world, all of us are imperfect.  Every one of us has done some wrong.  There are things we regret – things we have done or things we should have done.  Acknowledging our wrongdoings with a genuine sense of remorse can serve to keep us on the right track in life and encourage us to rectify our mistakes when possible and take action to correct things in the future.  But if we allow our regret to degenerate into excessive guilt, holding on to the memory of our past transgressions with continued self-blame and self-hatred, this serves no purpose other than to be a relentless source of self-punishment and self-induced suffering.” ~ Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

                    “In our daily life, problems invariably arise.  But problems themselves do not automatically cause suffering.  If we can directly address our problem and focus our energies on finding a solution, for instance, the problem can be transformed into a challenge.  If we throw into the mix, however, a feeling that our problem is ‘unfair,’ we add an additional ingredient that can become a powerful fuel in creating mental unrest and emotional suffering.  And now we not only have two problems instead of one, but that feeling of ‘unfairness’ distracts us, consumes us, and robs us of the energy needed to solve the original problem.” ~ Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

                      “The strong sensations we generally label as pain are inherent to living, but we can work with the quality of our experience in relation to these sensations.  If we resist them, our resistance actually intensifies the sensations and thus creates additional pain.  Another common way we intensify pain is by taking it personally and having a ‘why me?’ attitude.  If we can relax into pain as a natural part of living that everyone experiences, and let go of the self-judgment that something is wrong with me because I’m experiencing pain, we can alleviate our suffering to a large degree. Much of our suffering is caused by attachment to our sense of a separate autonomous ‘I’ that can somehow achieve a permanent state of affairs with only pleasure and no pain.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude

                        “A man is really a mature man when he has come to this conclusion: ‘If death is happening to everybody else, then I cannot be an exception.’ Once this conclusion sinks deep into your heart, your life can never be the same again.  You cannot remain attached to life in the old way.  If it is going to be taken away, what is the point of being so possessive?  If it is going to disappear one day, why cling and suffer? If life is not going to remain forever, then why be in such misery, anguish, worry?” ~ Osho, The Art of Living and Dying

                          “Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there’s anywhere to hide.” ~ Pema Chödrön

                            “Suffering persists because we nourish the feelings that cause it.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

                              “In seeking to escape from the suffering ourselves why should we inflict it upon others?” ~ Surangama Sutra

                                “The attempt to avoid legitimate suffering lies at the root of all emotional illness.” ~ Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

                                  “If your goal is to avoid pain and escape suffering, I would not advise you to seek higher levels of consciousness or spiritual evolution.  First, you cannot achieve them without suffering, and second, insofar as you do achieve them, you are likely to be called on to serve in ways more painful to you, or at least demanding of you, than you can now imagine.  Then why desire to evolve at all, you may ask.  If you ask this question, perhaps you do not know enough of joy.” ~ Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

                                    “When we avoid the legitimate suffering that results from dealing with problems, we also avoid the growth that problems demand from us.  It is for this reason that in chronic mental illness we stop growing, we become stuck.  And without healing, the human spirit begins to shrivel.” ~ Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

                                      “[Ludwig van] Beethoven came to see that complete surrender to his situation in life – to his deafness, to his various neuroses – was absolutely essential for his own spiritual development and for the development of his art.  He accepted the apparent mystery that his art and his suffering were inextricably linked.”

                                      Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life

                                        “Wallowing in the pain and suffering isn’t going to help anyone, yourself included, any more than starving yourself will help the hungry.  If you want to help the world and yourself, keep your frequency high and do your work from a place of power and joy.” ~ Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass