Quotes About Suffering

If you suffer and make your loved ones suffer, there is nothing that can justify your desire.

When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.

Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering by all means, including personal contact and visits, images, sounds. By such means, ...awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world. If we get in touch with the suffering of the world, and are moved by that suffering, we may come forward to help the people who are suffering.

The fact is that when you make the other suffer, he will try to find relief by making you suffer more. The result is an escalation of suffering on both sides.

We will not just say, I love him very much, but instead, I will do something so that he will suffer less. The mind of compassion is truly present when it is effective in removing another person's suffering.

People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don't suffer anymore.

The problem is whether we are determined to go in the direction of compassion or not. If we are, then can we reduce the suffering to a minimum? If I lose my direction, I have to look for the North Star, and I go to the north. That does not mean I expect to arrive at the North Star. I just want to go in that direction.

Nonviolent action, born of the awareness of suffering and nurtured by love, is the most effective way to confront adversity.

When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity of accepting and having compassion for them is there.

If you nourish your hatred and your anger, you burn yourself. Understanding is the only way out. If you understand, you will suffer less, and you will know how to get to the root of injustice.

TRUE LOVE MAKES US HAPPY. If love doesn't make us happy, it's not love; it's something else. Love is a wonderful thing. It gives us the ability to offer joy and happiness, relieve suffering, and transcend all kinds of separation and barriers.

Suffering has its beneficial aspects. It can be an excellent teacher.

Without suffering, we do not have the opportunity to cultivate compassion and understanding; and without understanding, there can be no true love. So

Without suffering there cannot be happiness. Without mud there cannot be any lotus flowers.

You should have a chance to observe him when he sleeps. Look deeply, and see the tenderness that is revealed, the suffering, the hope, the despair that can be expressed during sleep. Sit there for fifteen minutes or half an hour, and just look. Understanding and compassion will arise in you, and you will know how to be there for your partner.

Even if we have time, we don't come home to ourselves. We try to keep ourselves constantly entertained - watching television, socialising, or using alcohol or drugs - because we don't want to experience that suffering all over again.

Everyone wants to be happy, and there is a strong energy in us pushing us toward what we think will make us happy. But we may suffer a lot because of this. We need the insight that position, revenge, wealth, fame, or possessions are, more often than not, obstacles to our happiness. We need to cultivate the wish to be free of these things so we can enjoy the wonders of life that are always available — the blue sky, the trees, our beautiful children.

If we want to reconcile with our family or with friends who have hurt us, we have to take care of ourselves first. If we're not capable of listening to ourselves, how can we listen to another person? If we don't know how to recognise our own suffering, it won't be possible to bring peace and harmony into our relationships.

When we cannot communicate, we suffer, and we spill our suffering on to other people. We can find ways to open the doors of communication again.

We are imprisoned in our small selves, thinking only of the comfortable conditions for this small self, while we destroy our large self.

Much of our suffering comes from wrong perceptions. To remove that hurt, we have to remove our wrong perception.

If you know how to make good use of the mud, you can grow beautiful lotuses. If you know how to make good use of suffering, you can produce happiness. We do need some suffering to make happiness possible. And most of us have enough suffering inside and around us to be able to do that. We don't have to create more.

The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other.

What are you ruminating on? Old suffering?