Pain, Despair, and The Second Arrow | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

Dear Thay, thank you
for sharing the Dharma with us.

I suffer a lot, and I realize 
it's part of my practice.

And I see that my suffering seems to 
come from two main things.

One is that...

I have a chronic illness that 
causes me a lot of physical pain.

The other is that I am an activist,
and I care very deeply for the world...

and I feel sometimes a lot of despair 
about what's happening in the world

around us,

in terms of violence, poverty,
environmental destruction.

And I wonder what advice you might have

or what practices you might recommend for 
those of us who are living with physical pain

or living with...

despair in our caring for the world.

Dear Thay,
Dear Sangha,

Our friend practices with 
physical pain from a chronic illness,

and she's also an activist
and sometimes finds herself...

feeling despair when she sees all the...

all the suffering, the violence and 
destruction that happen in our world.

And she's asking Thay
for practices to address...

living with physical pain
and also with the pain of...

of seeing many negative things
in our world.

We have learned in this retreat 
that we can reduce physical pain

with the practice of
releasing the tension in the body.

The pain may be still there,

but it can be reduced
if we can release the tension.

The pain increases
in function of tension.

So the practice of relaxation
in the lying position,

the practice of relaxation
during the time you walk [can help]

because every step you make
can help release the tension.

Walk like a free person.

Put things down.

Don't carry.

And you feel light.

There is a burden
that we always carry with us.

And the technique is,
the skillfulness is how to...

lay down the burden in order to be light.

And if you sit and walk
and lie down like that,

it is very easy to release the tension
and reduce the pain.

And the Buddha said that
we should not try to amplify our pain

or exaggerate the situation.

He used the image of someone
who is hit by an arrow.

A few minutes later, a second arrow 
comes and strikes exactly the same spot.

After the second arrow comes,

not only the pain is doubled, but it can be 
triple or 10 times more painful, intense.

So when we have some pain,
whether it is physical or mental,

we have to recognize it as it is,
and we should not exaggerate it.

"Breathing in, I know this is
only a minor physical pain.

I can very well make friends
and peace with it.

I can still smile to it."

If you recognize it as it is
and do not exaggerate it,

then you can make peace with it

and you don't suffer much.

But if you get angry revolting against that,
if you worry too much,

if you imagine that
you are going to die very soon,

then the pain will be
multiplied by 100 times.

That is the second arrow.
We should not allow it to come.

That's recommended by the Buddha.

It's very important.
Don't exaggerate.

Don't amplify the pain.

And we know that if we are...

not peaceful,

if we do not have enough
compassion in us,

we cannot do much

to help the world.

As an activist
we want to do something...

to help the world to suffer less.

But we ourselves are the center.

We have to make peace,

to reduce the suffering 
in us first.

Because we represent the world.

Peace and love and happiness
should always begin here.

The Buddha proposed
so many ways to practice

in order to help reduce
the pain in the body,

reduce the pain in the feeling
and the emotion,

and to reconcile with ourselves

because there are sufferings inside:
fear, anger...

So when you take care of yourself,

you are practically
taking care of the world.

Imagine a pine tree
standing on the front yard.

We ask the pine tree
what it can do...

what is the maximum the pine tree
can do to help the world.

The answer is very clear:

You should be a beautiful,
healthy pine tree.

You help the world by being your best.

So that is applied to humans, also.

The basic thing we can do
to help the world is to be healthy,

to be solid, to be loving,
to be gentle to ourselves.

And when people look at us,
they have confidence.

And they say, "she can do that,
I can do that too."

So anything you can do for you,
you do it for the world.

Don't think that you and the world 
are two separate things.

When you breathe in
mindfully and gently

and feel the wonder of life,

you are doing that for us
for the world, remember.

And practicing with
that kind of insight,

you will succeed
in helping the world.

And you don't have to 
wait until tomorrow.

You can do it right today.