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The Second Arrow

Pain Without Suffering

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"When touched with a feeling of pain,
the ordinary uninstructed person
sorrows, grieves,
and laments, beats his breast,
becomes distraught.
So he feels two pains,
physical and mental.
Just as if they were to shoot a man
with an arrow and,
right afterward,
were to shoot him with another one,
so that he would feel
the pains of two arrows..."

—the Buddha

© Pro-Cultura

Image: Tibetan medical painting illustrating sowa rigpa, the ancient Tibetan "science of healing." From the Blue Beryl, a 17th century Tibetan medical text.

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