Teaching #36: The Difference between Pain and Suffering
Because your mind is conditioned by past life events, when it encounters an experience it perceives as painful or unpleasant, there is immediate and direct suffering that is far greater than the actual discomfort of the situation. The increased discomfort happens in your mind, not in the actual experience.
Chapter 9, Pg 86
For your reflection: Over the next few days, carefully investigate when suffering arises in your mind. Then describe the actual pain—physical or emotional—to yourself. Examine how your mind is reacting to the pain with storytelling, imagining the future, or thinking that the pain will never end. Finally, make a conscious effort to just be with the pain and not let your mind fall into reactivity.