We can overcome our difficulties by working on them indirectly. There are two aspects to the hardships we go through. There are the outer circumstances of the hardship and there is a reaction we have to the hardship in our minds. So it is not the case that there is a only an unfortunate or negative event that is the problem. A lot of our experience of hardship is connected is how we carry the burden of the hardship mentally. Actually most of the suffering we experience in relation to a hardship is connected to the choices we make in terms of the aspect of the difficulty on which we choose to focus. I think that shifting our focus can help to reduce the sense of burden connected to our difficulties.

17th Karmapa

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNqp202bIlM


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