Drop suffering
Hit, but not wounded
Existence itself carries a taste of dukkha. The brain is wired for dissatisfaction.
The Buddha said: if you get hit by an arrow, don’t shoot yourself with a second one. Dukkha is not the outside world — it’s the reaction to it.
Everything that wounds, we produce ourselves. The first arrow is what happened. The second is your reaction. Don’t shoot the second one. It won’t change anything — it’ll just hurt more.
Getting hit doesn’t mean getting wounded. Pain is unavoidable and comes from outside. Whether you’re broken — that’s your call.
Frost and wind are outside forces. Suffering is an inside choice.
You need to tell them apart so you can better choose what brings you joy.
Suffering isn’t a law of nature. It’s a habit you can drop.
Turns out tearing away from suffering doesn’t even take much effort. More precisely — tearing the suffering away from yourself.
The second arrow is you. There’s no one else.