Suffering is always an invitation to discover, in the moment, what we are not deeply accepting and to see that what we are not accepting is already accepted.

look at what the man was actually experiencing, you see someone feeling utterly frustrated, feeling like a total fool and a failure as a father and as a man, feeling powerless and helpless and weak, and desperately seeking a way out of his predicament. And you see someone not able to admit any of this, to himself or to his children. Underneath our

Suffering or stress or psychological discomfort is no longer something bad or evil to be transcended or destroyed; it is a unique opportunity to see what you are still at war with, what you are still seeking.

What I’m saying is that if we are to be truly free, we must face this reality with open eyes. We must move away from denial, wishful thinking, and hope, and tell the truth about life as it is. Great freedom lies in admitting the truth of this moment, however much it clashes with our hopes, dreams, and plans.

Seen in this way, suffering is always, always a signpost pointing back to wholeness.

let’s simply note that in every experience of suffering, when you take the focus off the details of the situation, off the story of what’s happening, off the external circumstances, and really come back to your present experience—to present thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the body—you will always find seeking, even if that seeking is playing

Your suffering is not a curse, a punishment, an aberration, or a sign of your failure in any way. Suffering is always a great place to start exploring present experience. God knows, if I hadn’t suffered the way I did, I would never have begun questioning everything I knew and discovering freedom in everything I was at war with, in everything I

The truth is that their pain, in this moment, is real to them, and if we are to begin to find the wholeness within present experience, we must first validate and honor that present experience, no matter how illusory we perceive it to be, and, from there, move to find out what is really true. I meet you in your dream, and we explore the dream

let’s just say that from a place of deep acceptance of the way things are, in seeing the inherent perfection of life itself, one is still totally free to do what one is moved to do—to help, to change things, to make a difference. It’s just that our actions are no longer coming from the root assumption that reality is broken and needs to be fixed