Practical Wisdom with Dr. Rick Hanson
Oct 7, 2026 · 29 min · 10 segments
Life brings unavoidable pain, uncertainty, and loss, but it also offers countless opportunities to develop the inner resources that help us meet those challenges without becoming overwhelmed by them…
Rick HansonHost
I don't suffer all the time usually, most people, but I definitely suffer some of the time.
Sometimes it could be extreme physical agony or emotional agony, devastating losses and upsets, terrible anguish.
Now, here I wanna make a key distinction and break the word suffering apart into two elements.
There is first the inherent, unavoidable, inescapable pain in this life, physical pain and emotional pain.
Inherently, if we suffer a devastating loss, including the loss of a pet, of course there's pain.
The Buddha distinguished between that kind of pain, he used the metaphor of the first arrows or the first darts of life, distinguished that from the pain we construct ourselves, the pain or suffering broadly, the suffering rather that we construct ourselves that is added to the inescapable pains of life and also suffering we construct ourselves that is not added to any pain.
And it is that latter kind of suffering that I'm gonna focus on in the remaining three truths.
The second darts, the second arrows that we throw ourselves through getting angry that we're sad, you know, resisting discomfort.
We create suffering for ourselves by getting addicted or driven or possessive or caught up in various pleasures.
We add suffering to what is happening in life by getting all caught up in our righteous case about other people, by holding on to resentments, by being caught up in vengeance, or by beating ourselves up mentally, like maybe we criticize other people.
I don't suffer all the time usually, most people, but I definitely suffer some of the time.
Sometimes it could be extreme physical agony or emotional agony, devastating losses and upsets, terrible anguish.
Now, here I wanna make a key distinction and break the word suffering apart into two elements.
There is first the inherent, unavoidable, inescapable pain in this life, physical pain and emotional pain.
Inherently, if we suffer a devastating loss, including the loss of a pet, of course there's pain.
The Buddha distinguished between that kind of pain, he used the metaphor of the first arrows or the first darts of life, distinguished that from the pain we construct ourselves, the pain or suffering broadly, the suffering rather that we construct ourselves that is added to the inescapable pains of life and also suffering we construct ourselves that is not added to any pain.
And it is that latter kind of suffering that I'm gonna focus on in the remaining three truths.
The second darts, the second arrows that we throw ourselves through getting angry that we're sad, you know, resisting discomfort.
We create suffering for ourselves by getting addicted or driven or possessive or caught up in various pleasures.
We add suffering to what is happening in life by getting all caught up in our righteous case about other people, by holding on to resentments, by being caught up in vengeance, or by beating ourselves up mentally, like maybe we criticize other people.
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