2 Arrows

Buddha was once asked by one of his monks, long ago you taught us that there is suffering and there is a reason for suffering which is Desire and there is an end of suffering which is Nirvana and also there is a way out of suffering which is Ashtanga Marg. But now we find we all are following your teachings, but we are all getting old, we are getting disease and also death is coming near, not only for us but for you also. That means suffering is continuing even though we are following your teachings, what is your message and how does it work.

 Buddha gave a very nice and incisive answer as to what spirituality is. Consider a man hit by an arrow, imagine the sudden shock and pain and the suffering. Imagine that he is hit by a second arrow immediately, how much more suffering that increases. Now, the first arrow is the suffering that the world throws at us, the things that happens in the world like death, disease and social problems, financial problems, relationship problems, health problems and so on, all of the events which happen in the world which give us suffering. The Second arrow which hits is our reaction to all of this, how do we take all this and it is the second arrow which really causes the maximum amount of suffering. What happens in the world can be pleasant or unpleasant but really that is not the cause of suffering, the real cause is the second arrow. Our reaction to the events of the world, how do we react to the problems, crisis, disease, death etc. So the nature of suffering is like being hit by 2 Arrows, one arrow is what the world throws at us and the second arrow is how we react to it, its the second that contains suffering. 

Then the Buddha says all that I have taught and all that spirituality can do is remove that suffering which is caused by the second arrow. Pleasant and unpleasant events coming from the world, they will keep coming, they have come for everybody, all living beings, all human beings including enlightened beings, but they were able to overcome suffering. There is a famous incident, Sri Ramakrishna is dying of throat cancer, and is very sick and suffering terribly, one of his disciples asked how are you today? Sri Ramakrishna says he's not well, there is pain here and cannot eat, then the disciple said Sir I see you are at great Bliss, a strange thing to say to a man dying of terminal cancer. Sri Ramakrishna acknowledges it, he laughs and says 'O sala dhore niyeche' (the Rascal has found me out). Outside he is suffering but deep inside he has got something established from which there is no suffering, he is completely fine. That's the difference between an enlightened person and normal person, that's the difference between the Yogi and the Bhogi.

Sri Ramakrishna said that life is full of thorns, the wise person will put on shoes so that he can walk over the thorns without being affected. What is these shoes, this spiritual realization are the shoes which we must put on to walk through the pathways of life, which is full of challenges, full of sufferings. We must put on the shoes of spirituality to protect ourselves from the thorns of life.