What Should We Do with Our Suffering?

Learning how to suffer better

Buddha says there are two kinds of suffering: the kind that leads to more suffering and the kind that brings an end to suffering. —Terry Tempest Williams

Listen to Thich Nhat Hanh on suffering: https://tinyurl.com/WeCanSufferLess

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UNWISE SUFFERING VERSUS WISE SUFFERING

Unwise suffering is the kind of suffering you're compulsively drawn back to feel over and over again out of habit. It's familiar, and thus perversely comfortable. Wise suffering is the kind of pain that surprises you with valuable teachings and inspires you to see the world with new eyes.

While unwise suffering is often born of fear, wise suffering is typically stirred up by love. The unwise, unproductive stuff comes from allowing yourself to be controlled by your early conditioning and from doing things that are out of harmony with your essence.

The wise, useful variety arises out of an intention to approach life as an interesting work of art and uncanny game that's worthy of your curiosity.

THE WOUND IS WHERE THE LIGHT ENTERS YOU. — Rumi

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. We cannot avoid pain, but we can avoid adding suffering to the pain. —Pema Chödrön

Our suffering is not some kind of punishment, it is a reminder that we are not alone. It is what connects us with everyone else. —Sharon Salzberg

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. —Rami Shapiro

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. —Fyodor Dostoevsky

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. —Helen Keller

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire. —Charles Bukowski

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. —Albert Camus

When you can't control what's happening, challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what's happening. That's where your power is. —Lisa Nichols

In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now. The precise moment I am in is always the only safe place for me. —Julia Cameron

They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds. —Dinos Christianopoulos

Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you. —L.R. Knost

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. —Kenji Miyazawa

I learned to conserve my anger. As heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power that can move the world. —Mahatma Gandhi

You gain strength, courage, and confidence whenever you stop to look fear in the face. —Eleanor Roosevelt

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. —Mahatma Gandhi

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. —Ernest Hemingway

Strong people alone know how to organize their suffering so as to bear only the most necessary pain. —Emil Dorian

The Angel of History Bears Witness — by me

The sterile architects of suffering
slither and strut through marble halls, 
fantasizing themselves 
immune to justice.
But you and I know
that the Angel of History
bears witness to their crimes
against life.

The sniveling enablers of suffering
bow and scrape before preening power, 
willing to mortgage everyone's tomorrow 
for their brittle comfort today — 
as they burn their own minds,
torching every last scrap of empathy
they might have had
for the millions they gouge and slash.
We know
that they are scrutinized
by the Vigilant Visionary
who archives precise records.

Peering into boardrooms 
where algorithms mutilate “truth,” 
gazing into towers where wealth 
accumulates like rancid dust, 
scanning the stale chambers where rights 
are devalued and decimated: 
Our ancient and patient Watcher 
observes and documents 
the mindless cruelty
and proud stupidity.

All those who poison democracy, 
who fear and scorn the needs of those 
they can’t and won’t understand,
who jury-rig spiteful laws 
to silence the disenfranchised:
Their sick names are engraved
in our Sacred Auditor's
eternal shadows.

And those in the snug, smug middle, 
festering in mildewed illusions of neutrality, 
who whine "both sides have good points" 
while diseases flourish,
starvation chokes,
and distress proliferates:
Their cowardice resounds and echoes 
through the ages.

As for the disengaged millions,
those who had better things to do 
than stand in the rain to vote, 
better things to do
than speak when speaking was inconvenient:
Our Angel of History 
notes and mourns their eclipse.

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But as for our teachers 
who rise up singing, 
as for our ousted workers 
whose resilience lifts us,
as for our young builders making art 
as a strategy to refuse despair,
as for our nurturers who seed hope
they may never harvest:

Our Majestic Seer 
bears witness to their courage —
the same Mysterious Force
that has precipitated 
the demise of tyrants throughout time, 
that has expedited the crumbling of empires:

And to all of us who choose 
the necessary discomfort of
waging insurrection, 
who spurn the luxury and ease 
purchased with others' pain, 
who beam luminous blessings
in our repudiation of greed:

The Angel of History
remembers our tender fight
for the future.

I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. —Georgia O'Keeffe

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? —Dorothy Day

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. —Susan B. Anthony

We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself. —Sophie Scholl, German resistance fighter during Nazi regime

Pessimism is a luxury we can afford only in good times. Iin difficult times it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. —Golda Meir

There was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a person had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer. —Viktor Frankl

Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, but rather on the needs of the other. —Audre Lorde

Our own suffering is a bridge that joins us with all humanity. —Thich Nhat Hanh

Compassion is not a luxury, it is a necessity for our own peace and mental stability. —Dalai Lama

Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But you keep going. —Yasmin Mogahed

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. —Rainer Maria Rilke

Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. —Andrew Boyd

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SINGING TO THE BELOVED

The Emerald Podcast wrote everything in the section below:

“We live in times of individual, sociocultural and planetary crisis, exacerbated by rising divisions between people.

“How have humans historically navigated such times of crisis? Yes, we've organized, taken action, and responded as we've been called to respond.

“But we have also deepened our connection to the greater cosmos, through songs and poems and rituals of devotion, through crying out to a beloved universe whose workings remain a mystery but to whom we feel intimately and inextricably connected.

“In times when we are raw and situations are precarious, many poets tell us, the breath of life is closer than ever. So we have sung aloud to source, and honored the emotional intricacies of our relationship with a beloved world whose turnings can be maddening, painful and often beyond our control.

“Singing to the beloved in this way isn't about blissing out and bypassing, it's about finding a practice that honors the depth and emotional texture of our experience of a paradoxical world and that matches the intensity of the times we're living in.

“For the wounds of these times cannot simply be addressed through rational analysis and diagnosis, nor can they be addressed only with the short-burning flame of outrage. We need a deeper resourcing.

“At a time of a profound pan-societal longing for meaning and sacredness, connecting to the cosmos as beloved and seeing the sacred in every phase of the beloved's waves has deep implications for how we resource and replenish ourselves, how we align our movements to the actual ebbs and flows of the natural world, and how we begin to heal the divided sociocultural space between us.”

You can listen to the “Singing to the Beloved” Emerald Podcast here:

https://tinyurl.com/SingForOurBeloveds

https://tinyurl.com/SingingForOurBeloveds

https://tinyurl.com/SongsForBeloveds

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week of March 6

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): No cars drove through London’s streets in 1868. That invention was still years away. But the roads were crammed with pedestrians and horses. To improve safety amidst the heavy traffic, a mechanical traffic light was installed—the first in the world. But it had a breakdown a month later, injured a police officer, and was discontinued. Traffic lights didn’t become common for 50 years after that. I believe your imminent innovations will have better luck and good timing, Pisces. Unlike the premature traffic signal, your creations and improvements will have the right context to succeed. Don’t be shy about pushing your good ideas! They could revamp the daily routine.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The world’s darkest material is Vantablack. This super-black coating absorbs 99.96% of visible light, creating a visual void. It has many practical applications, like improving the operation of telescopes, infrared cameras, and solar panels. I propose we make Vantablack your symbol of power in the coming weeks. It will signify that an apparent void or absence in your life might actually be a fertile opportunity. An ostensible emptiness may be full of potential.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Among their many sensational qualities, rivers have the power to create through demolition and revision. Over the centuries, they erode rock and earth, making canyons and valleys. Their slow and steady transformative energy can be an inspiration to you in the coming months, Taurus. You, too, will be able to accomplish wonders through the strength of your relentless persistence—and through your resolute insistence that some old approaches will need to be eliminated to make way for new dispensations.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Centuries before European sailors ventured across the seas, Polynesians were making wide-ranging voyages around the South Pacific. Their navigations didn’t use compasses or sextants, but relied on analyzing ocean swells, star configurations, cloud formations, bird movements, and wind patterns. I bring their genius to your attention, Gemini, because I believe you are gaining access to new ways to read and understand your environment. Subtleties that weren’t previously clear to you are becoming so. Your perceptual powers seem to be growing, and so is your sensitivity to clues from below the visible surface of things. Your intuition is synergizing with your logical mind.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The Maeslant Barrier is a gigantic, movable barricade designed to prevent the flooding of the Dutch port of Rotterdam. It’s deployed when storms generate surges that need to be repelled. I think we all need metaphorical versions of this protective fortification, with its balance of unstinting vigilance and timely flexibility. Do you have such psychic structures in place, Cancerian? Now would be a good time to ensure that you have them and they’re working properly. A key factor, as you mull over the prospect I’m suggesting, is knowing that you don’t need to keep all your defenses raised to the max at all times. Rather, you need to sense when it’s crucial to assert limits and boundaries—and when it’s safe and right to allow the flow of connection and opportunity.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The authentic alchemists of medieval times were not foolishly hoping to transmute literal lead and other cheap metals into literal gold. In fact, their goal was to change the wounded, ignorant, unripe qualities of their psyches into beautiful, radiant aspects. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to do such magic. Life will provide you with help and inspiration as you try to brighten your shadows. We all need to do this challenging work, Leo! Now is one of your periodic chances to do it really well.

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WHAT LIFE STORY WILL YOU CREATE FOR YOURSELF IN THE COMING MONTHS?

Get inspired by listening to my 3-part EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES about your LONG-RANGE FUTURE.

These forecasts will be available for just two mores weeks.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2026? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do?

To listen to my three-part, in-depth reports, go here:

https://RealAstrology.com

Register and/or log in through the main page, click "Play Readings", and then select "Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3" of the "Long-Term Prediction for 2025."

Each of the three parts is a separate report, though related to the other two.

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Each of the three-part reports is seven to 11 minutes long. The cost is $7 per report. There are discounts for the purchase of multiple reports.

P.S. You can also listen to a short-term Expanded Audio Horoscope for the coming week.

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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Cosmic rhythms are authorizing you to be extra demanding in the coming days—as long as you are not frivolous, rude, or unreasonable. You have permission to ask for bigger and better privileges that you have previously felt were beyond your grasp. You should assume you have finally earned rights you had not fully earned before now. My advice is to be discerning about how you wield this extra power. Don’t waste it on trivial or petty matters. Use it to generate significant adjustments that will change your life for the better.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In North America, starlings are an invasive species introduced from Europe in the 19th century. They are problematic, competing with native species for resources. They can damage crops and spread diseases that affect livestock. Yet starlings also create the breathtakingly beautiful marvel known as a murmuration. They make mesmerizing, ever-shifting patterns in the sky while moving as one cohesive unit. We all have starling-like phenomena in our lives—people, situations, and experiences that arouse deeply paradoxical responses, that we both enjoy and disapprove of. According to my analysis, the coming weeks will be prime time to transform and evolve your relationships with these things. It’s unwise to sustain the status quo. I’m not necessarily advising you to banish them—simply to change your connection.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Buildings and walls in the old Incan city of Machu Picchu feature monumental stone blocks that fit together precisely. You can't slip a piece of paper between them. Most are irregularly shaped and weigh many tons. Whoever constructed these prodigious structures benefited from massive amounts of ingenuity and patience. I invite you to summon some of the same blend of diligence and brilliance as you work on your growing masterpiece in the coming weeks and months. My prediction: What you create in 2025 will last a very long time.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Bioluminescence is light emitted from living creatures. They don’t reflect the light of the sun or moon, but produce it themselves. Fireflies do it, and so do glow-worms and certain fungi. If you go to Puerto Rico’s Mosquito Bay, you may also spy the glimmer of marine plankton known as dinoflagellates. The best time to see them show what they can do is on a cloudy night during a new moon, when the deep murk reveals their full power. I believe their glory is a good metaphor for you in the coming days. Your beauty will be most visible and your illumination most valuable when the darkness is at a peak.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn-born Shah Jahan I was the Emperor of Hindustan from 1628 to 1658. During his reign, he commissioned the Taj Mahal, a magnificent garden and building complex to honor his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. This spectacular “jewel of Islamic art” is still a major tourist attraction. In the spirit of Shah Jahan’s adoration, I invite you to dream and scheme about expressing your devotion to what you love. What stirs your heart and nourishes your soul? Find tangible ways to celebrate and fortify your deepest passions.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Over 2,100 years ago, Greek scientists created an analog computer that could track astronomical movements and events decades in advance. Referred to now as the Antikythera mechanism, it was a unique, groundbreaking invention. Similar machines didn’t appear again until Europe in the 14^th century. If it’s OK with you, I will compare you with the Antikythera mechanism. Why? You are often ahead of your time with your innovative approaches. People may regard you as complex, inscrutable, or unusual, when in fact you are simply alert for and homing in on future developments. These qualities of yours will be especially needed in the coming weeks and months.

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