Dealing with Everyday Suffering

~ By Ajahn Jayasāro ~

As a teenager I came up with a number of ways to deal with everyday suffering. A couple of them I devised for dealing with delays and disappointments. These were especially useful while travelling in Asia. Changing a traveller’s cheque in a provincial Indian bank in the 1970’s could be a gruelling task. It often meant facing an obstacle course that included various ledgers and tokens and could take hours to complete. My favourite skilful means was to say to myself, ‘Well, it’s better than …’ and contemplate a worse alternative. It being India, a common phrase would be, ‘It’s better than standing in this queue with stomach cramps and diarrhoea’. Very soon, imagining that nightmare scenario would bring me back to peace with the situation. A more sobering reflection would be, ‘Well, it’s better than having no traveller’s cheques to change’. It would often amaze me to see how easy it was to drastically reduce mental pain by means of a change of focus or frame.

It is a simple practice but an effective one. When we wake up to the present moment with mindfulness, we have a choice. We can see what we are adding to situations and stop adding it or add something else, more skilful.

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"Food for the Heart", a series of Dhamma teachings handwritten weekly is posted on the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives page with Ajahn's kind permission.

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For other teachings by Ven. Ajahn Jayasāro, please visit the Panyaprateep Foundation website.