Eight Step Recovery (new edition) Quotes

“The Buddha was asked: what is the difference between how an ordinary person and a wise person respond to pain? He replied with the analogy of the two darts. All of us experience pain – whether that is physical pain like catching your finger in the door or mental pain such as when someone rejects you. This is the first dart, which we could call primary suffering. An ordinary person then gets caught up in trying to push away or avoid the pain: in blaming themselves or others, or feeling self-pity. This has the effect of making matters worse and constitutes the second dart, which we can call secondary suffering. A wise person just has the first dart. They don’t get stuck in avoidance or obsessing about the pain. Instead they mindfully accept it for what it is, without making it worse with secondary suffering.”
― Valerie Mason-John, Eight Step Recovery (new edition): Using the Buddha's Teachings to Overcome Addiction

“Part of the truth of suffering is simply that sometimes painful things will happen. Part of the delusion of suffering is that we can avoid our own suffering, perhaps just holding it off at arm’s length. Our addictions are part of the delusion and ignorance that we as humans cultivate, causing our lives to become a whirlwind of chaos. We think that we are managing our emotions, that we can remain constantly high. We think that we can defeat the law of gravity, even though we know that what goes up must come back down. When we are high, we will plummet from the euphoric state induced by stimulants back down into the depths of despair.”
― Valerie Mason-John, Eight Step Recovery (new edition): Using the Buddha's Teachings to Overcome Addiction