It’s helpful to reflect on the reality of illness or discomfort that is natural and happens all the time.

What comes to mind is the Buddha’s discourse on the two arrows. Being struck by one arrow is painful, and being struck by a second one is painful as well. In terms of feeling, because each of us has a body, it is quite natural that we experience unpleasant sensations. And due to having a mind, it is also natural that we are sensitive to the sense contacts we experience. These are qualities of the first arrow.

Becoming averse, worried, or anxious about unpleasant feeling or planning and proliferating about how to escape from sense contact, is the second arrow.

We can’t avoid the first arrow, but we can avoid the second arrow. Because we have physical bodies, because we exist, our bodies naturally get ill and our minds change. There are always going to be certain elements of unpleasant feelings. Even the Buddha himself experienced unpleasant feelings and had physical ailments, like a bad back. There are places in the suttas where the Buddha turns over his teaching role to either Ānanda or Sāriputta because his back is too sore to continue sitting and teaching.

We can recognize and be attentive to the first arrow and not turn that arrow into something that then creates more complication, difficulty, and pain. We can reflect on that as we go about the day, asking ourselves, “What are my reactions to unpleasant feelings? What are my habits and tendencies?”

We can develop mindfulness and discernment to receive the first arrow skillfully and not look for ways to be struck by the second, third, or fourth arrows.

This reflection by Luang Por Pasanno is from the book, Beginning Our Day, Volume 2, (pdf) pp. 1-2.

If you were to ask people familiar with Buddhism to identify its two most important wisdom teachings, they’d probably say emptiness and the four noble truths. If you were to ask them further which of the two teachings was more fundamental,…

อ่านต่อ ⇢

Within oneself is peace to be found, not from another will a bhikkhu find peace. For one who is inwardly calmed, nothing is accumulated, how then rejected? Just as in the centre of the ocean no waves arise, but all is still; so, steadfast a…

อ่านต่อ ⇢

Come back, just come back. Be present while drinking that ‘cuppa’ and begin a new moment. Observe the mind’s restless thrashing – forever toppling us into the past and spilling us into the future. By stopping and returning to this moment, w…

อ่านต่อ ⇢

“What if I get it wrong? What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m left here alone?” Just look over the edge of that “what if.” Let your mind open up and realize that you’ve been running away from phantoms. Examine the attitudes you might have l…

อ่านต่อ ⇢

At that time, I’d heard teachers giving Dhamma talks about letting go, letting go, and I still couldn’t make much of it. Luang Pu Kinaree asked me to sew a set of robes. I went at it flat out. I wanted to get it over and done with quickly.…

อ่านต่อ ⇢

Throughout the course of any day, there are thousands of different situations either on the grand scale, like someone’s life ending, or on the minuscule level—“Where have I left that hammer? What am I going to make to go with the broccoli?…

อ่านต่อ ⇢

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then a certain devatā, in the far extreme of the night, her extreme radiance lighting up the entirety of Jeta’s Grove, w…

อ่านต่อ ⇢

Virtue, meditation, and wisdom are the tools we use in training ourselves in how to relate to the world around us. This training will help us to see the qualities that bring true benefit to our society – the qualities of loving-kindness, co…

อ่านต่อ ⇢

The Buddha said there are only two things that manifest in the mind: the arising of suffering and the ending of suffering. A pretty miserable programme if you don’t see it from the right perspective of non-grasping. Where’s the joy and happ…

อ่านต่อ ⇢