Suffering Is Our Habit

Every moment we have this: If you just do it, if you just follow your everyday life with an open mind, with an awakened mind, and just react to this moment, then there is no place for suffering. Even if this moment is pain, if you just go through this pain with this mind then this is not suffering.

Suffering means we do not accept our life, and we don’t follow our everyday life, our life in this moment. But we follow our dream life. We want something else. We are not happy with what we have.

Sometimes there is pain, sometimes there is relief, but you know this moment [hits the floor with Zen stick] no matter how big your pain is, it is not a problem. The problem is when you think “Oh, I must suffer another half an hour of this place.” This is suffering. Or “I already have this pain for three days, this is suffering.” But if you put it down this thinking and just experience your pain, there is no suffering in it. But that is not easy, because suffering is our habit, so we fairly easily follow this habit. This “I want what I don’t have, I don’t want what I have.” So I am not happy with what I have.

If there is pain, that is what I have, that is my life.