Student and Teacher

Together on the Path

At times, the suffering we feel can be overwhelming, as a student shares below. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche responds with both compassion and wisdom in this exchange during a retreat in Mexico back in 2015 titled The Power of Warmth, Physical Healing Through Meditation. This webcast is archived on the CyberSangha website.

Student: I feel frozen and my thoughts are full of pain. I just want to stop suffering.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche: We are all with you. We all want to stop suffering. But trying too much to stop suffering is a suffering too. So instead of trying to stop suffering too much, give a space to the suffering and allow the suffering to come and to go. Because every suffering wants to go away from you just as much as you want them to. They want to go. But most of the time, we hold on to them.

Your intense desire to get rid of the sufferings is the problem. That's why they don't go. You see, we grasp by wanting them, and we also grasp by not wanting them. Being more aware of your not grasping onto the pain is a much more important part of healing than your grasping at trying to rid yourself of the pain.

So what I would recommend is to be aware of grasping mind, of holding on. As we have practiced by taking the three precious pills [of stillness, silence and spaciousness], we are resting, going deeper, deeper, finding that space, finding that awareness, the power of awareness. We are able to rest. And when we rest, the sky clears. And when the sky clears, awareness arises. And when awareness arises, warmth is there. When warmth is there, the pains are gone or the conflicts are gone.

Learn more about the entire 12-part course on The True Source of Healing available on CyberSangha.net.

Here is a link to the entire free course on The True Source of Healing, offered by Ligmincha Learning.

View this short video by Salvador Espinosa with text adapted from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's book The True Source of Healing.