The Doctor Is Within is a great post in the NYT about the Dalai Lama.
I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about the difference between suffering and unhappiness. I always assumed suffering led to unhappiness, or maybe unhappiness led to suffering. But that’s not the way it is. Here’s the author giving his interpretation of Buddhist teaching:
Happiness is not pleasure, they know, and unhappiness, as the Buddhists say, is not the same as suffering. Suffering — in the sense of old age, sickness and death — is the law of life; unhappiness is just the position we choose — or can not choose — to bring to it.
Suffering is there, always. And so is happiness. That’s something to ponder.
