Sit With It. . .
Life, as the Buddha taught, is marked by dukkha — often translated as suffering, but also encompassing stress, dissatisfaction, and discomfort. These discomforts come in many forms: physical pain, emotional wounds, loss, uncertainty, and the countless small frustrations of daily living. Our usual reaction is to resist them, to push them away, or to numb ourselves against them.
But Buddhism offers another path: to sit with discomfort, to acknowledge it fully, and to learn from it. Rather than viewing discomfort as an enemy to be destroyed, Buddhism teaches us to see it as a teacher. Pain and unease can reveal the clinging and aversion that bind us. They can show us how deeply we wish to control what is, instead of accepting what arises.
Through mindfulness and meditation, we train ourselves to notice discomfort without immediate judgment. We observe the tension in our body, the swirl of difficult thoughts, the ache of the heart — and we allow it to be there. In this gentle, open awareness, we begin to see the impermanent and ever-shifting nature of our experiences. Discomfort, like all things, comes and goes.
This does not mean we resign ourselves to passivity. Rather, we respond to discomfort wisely instead of reacting blindly. We can make changes where possible, but we do so from a place of clarity, not fear. We meet pain with compassion, both for ourselves and for others, and in doing so we develop resilience and equanimity.
Discomfort, then, becomes an opportunity: to practice acceptance, to deepen our understanding of suffering, and to strengthen the qualities of patience, kindness, and courage.
May we remember today that discomfort is not a failure — it is a part of being alive. When we stop running from it, we can finally begin to grow through it.
Peace and Love, Jim#sitwithit #thedailybuddha #tdb
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