No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

by Thich Nhat Hanh

When you’re overwhelmed by despair, all you can see is suffering everywhere you look. You feel as if the worst thing is happening to you.

But because he had a lot of insight, wisdom, and compassion, he knew how to suffer and so he suffered much less.

The Buddha’s Four Noble Truths are: there is suffering; there is a course of action that generates suffering; suffering ceases (i.e., there is happiness); and there is a course of action leading to the cessation of suffering (the arising of happiness).

There is an art to suffering well. If we know how to take care of our suffering, we not only suffer much, much less, we also create more happiness around us and in the world.

but I didn’t let any fear of loss hold me back, because I knew I was on the path of fulfilling my true aspiration.

That is why we should not try to run away from one unpleasant thing after another. Holding our suffering, looking deeply into it, and transforming it into compassion, we find a way to happiness.

If we know how to handle the little sufferings, we don’t have to suffer on a daily basis. We can practice letting go of what the French call les petites miseres, the little miseries, and save our energy to embrace and soothe the true pains of illness and loss that are unavoidable.

“Breathing in, I know I’m alive.” Your eyes still work: “Breathing in, I’m aware of my eyes. Breathing out, I smile to my eyes.”

If we know how to create a moment of happiness, we get to enjoy that happiness ourselves, and we can also double it by sharing it with another person. That is the art of happiness, tasting and delighting in the little happinesses of daily life.

“Darling, I suffer. I don’t understand why you have said such a thing to me. I don’t understand why you have done such a thing to me. I suffer. Please explain. I need your help.” This is true love. But if you say, “I’m not suffering, I don’t need your help,” that’s not true love.