Because Shinzen was a bit of a Buddhist “nerd” (he even wore horn-rimmed glasses), he chose to express these words of wisdom with an equation: “Suffering = Pain x Resistance.” He then added, “Actually, it’s an exponential rather than a multiplicative relationship.” His point was that we can distinguish between the normal pain of life—difficult emotions, physical discomfort, and so on—and actual suffering, which is the mental anguish caused by fighting against the fact that life is sometimes painful.
