WISDOM FOR THE CURRENT MOMENT

In moments like this, when hopelessness, grief from loss, values crushed, and the oxygen supply for possibility now gone, where do you go?

Given that I am an elder, it does me no good to perpetuate the shock.

Nor can I pretend it will be OK. It won’t be.

Nothing is permanent; everything changes. Rome, Greece, gone. Nothing lasts.

This is not a new feeling, but it goes beyond the personal this time. It’s gone universal. Everyone is reacting.

Recognizing your suffering is one thing, but seeing the staggering suffering it will cause for so many is another is also real.

The solemn job of an elder is to do what you can do to relieve suffering.

Heartlessness, indifference, selfishness, and irresponsibility are now the cornerstones of the pending future.

For an elder, the question isn’t “What should I do in this moment?” No, an elder knows to ask, “Who should I be?” now.

As an elder, I also know to look inward to answer that question. But my practice is that I need to step outside to look inside.

One practice for me to look outside in is to sit down with my teachers.?

Thich Nhat Hanh

“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending. If you can listen and understand your own suffering, then you can relieve the suffering in others.”

Pema Ch?dr?n

"If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher. The truth you find in your own pain, anger, and resentment becomes the compassion you extend to others. By staying open to discomfort rather than running from it, you find clarity, a deeper understanding of suffering, and the strength to transform it."

Dalai Lama

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Compassion is a sense of concern that draws you to help those who are suffering. You experience a sense of serenity and inner strength when you have genuine compassion."

Eckhart Tolle

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. You can alleviate suffering by recognizing this truth and finding stillness beneath it. When you no longer resist the pain of the moment but observe it, you see it transform. In the awareness, you uncover peace.”

Ram Dass

?“Suffering is part of our training program for becoming wise. Suffering is a powerful teacher that helps cultivate wisdom by forcing us to confront life’s deeper truths. Through suffering, we gain insights that are otherwise difficult to access.

“The shadow in our lives is there for us to embrace. Suffering is grace. Suffering opens us up spiritually. Suffering shifts from something to avoid to something that can awaken us to a greater sense of compassion and connection.”

Werner Erhard

“Suffering is caused by our interpretations of reality, rather than reality itself. Once you see that you are the source of your suffering, you are free to let it go.”

?“Suffering holds value as an opportunity to transform one’s relationship to life, to question one’s interpretations, and to access new ways of being. When we stop resisting and simply accept what is, without attaching meaning that induces suffering, we gain clarity, freedom, and access to our true potential.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

“How we squander our hours of pain”

How we squander our hours of pain.

How we gaze beyond them into the bitter duration to see if they have an end.

Though they are really seasons of us, our winter, enduring foliage, ponds, meadows, and deep forests, that live in us, that we lean on.

Not knowing how to suffer them gently, they grip us, forcefully, against ourselves.

For me, in this brief poem, Rilke captures how suffering is resisted, though it is an essential, transformative "season" within us, a part of our being that helps us grow. Rilke invites a gentle acceptance of pain, suggesting that suffering, like winter, has its wisdom and purpose.

Once again, my teachers have reminded me of the nature of suffering and that I am the chooser of my experience.

Purchase Older to Elder HERE .