Pain & Suiffering

We who are like senseless children
Shrink from suffering and its causes.
We hurt ourselves; our pain is self-inflicted!
Why should others be the object of our anger?

Sãntideva: Bodhicaryãvatãra 6.43

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I’ve heard it said, “Pain in life is inevitable but suffering is not.” It wasn’t something I wanted to hear because I had always considered pain and suffering came from outside, from others, by design or by accident. If they, pain and suffering, were from external causes and if I had no role in them…then I could be a victim of fate. This state of mind allowed me the excuse to blame others and my anger was justified. This also gave me permission to use whatever I wished relieve my suffering and pain. After all, I deserved a break. I even owed it to myself. So many popular revenge oriented movies tell me I’m not alone in this warped thinking (I'm thinking; Django and the Rocky franchise). Revenge and anger… going over and over in my mind what I could have said or done or would say or do… the last time or the next time occupied a lot of my thinking whenever I felt victimized. The pain or injury had long sense subsided but my thinking sustained the suffering. Thus, suffering led me to a dead-end where I could no longer take it and it was then, and only then, that I sought a solution to suffering.
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