Offering criticism in a timely, respectful manner. (Part Two) (Click image for video)

Pain will always be with us. 

When there is pain, suffering follows. 

(Part 1) 

Some years ago, when walking blithely (but alas, not mindfully) out the front door, I didn’t notice the ice. For a moment I was airborne. Right away gravity took over. One moment I was standing upright on a porch, and a few seconds later I was sitting on the ground several yards away.

Apparently, there was a middle part in my acrobatics because my knee really, really hurt.

It caused pain for many days, but by using various cultivation methods, my suffering eased some. I chanted, which made me happy. It also helped me to relax, which in turn lessened the physiological reaction to pain. Another method was getting involved in my work, which distracted me from thinking of the pain. Then there was understanding as I smiled and acknowledged “I’m repaying some of my past karmas.”

In that instance, I managed to actualize the reality that even though we undergo pain, we can choose not to continue suffering.

Offering criticism in a timely, respectful manner. (Part One) (Click image for video)

“There is nothing 

either good or bad, 

but thinking makes it so.” 

Shakespeare famously wrote these words in Hamlet. And how true these words are. For it is our thinking that makes us happy and at ease. Or otherwise. As we go through life, trying to prevail in a constantly happy state, we stubbornly blot out experiences that tell us that life is otherwise. We do this as we incessantly pursue the posit that only pleasant phenomena will make us happy.

But happiness is a mental state, not a quality inherent in material possessions or new experiences.

So rightly, whether or not something puts a smile on our face depends on what we tell ourselves.

We can firmly—and wrongly—assert that to be happy we just need more pleasing objects, relationships, and situations. Or, we can accept that wanting more inevitably leads to more wanting. And more disappointment, and frustration and, thus, more suffering. Causes with downward spiraling effects.

It’s our choice.