“Suffering is Optional”

One of the many things I find engaging about Pema Chondron is her directness. Currently in meditation group we are reading her How We Live is How We Die.

I took these notes while watching a short YouTube video with Pema being interviewed.

"Pain is a part of life. Suffering is optional. Avoid the spin off into suffering."

Be fully present to what’s happening. Slow down. Be grateful for the time I still have. Rejoice.

Access to spaciousness. Joy in the moment.

“Collaborate with reality,” says Trungpa Rinpoche who was one of Pema's teachers.

It is so easy to be swept up in the narratives of others. Whether it be politicians or family, the drama must remain “out there” and not invade my sense of calm and well-being.

Calm is the feeling I returned home with from my Medicine Buddha retreat.

Where am I in my evolution?

Is this the life where I become enlightened? Or just the life where I emerge from ignorance to contemplate the concepts of enlightenment?

“Stop punishing a ghost for a crime committed in a dream.” Zen Koan

I don’t have to save the world…I just have to save myself…In so doing I can help the ones I love…and they in turn can help others…which is not to say I will not help strangers…but in order to do so I must first save myself.

Medicine Buddha Retreat

KTD Monastery, Woodstock, New York

August 6-10, 2026

As it is written in many of the books I have been reading on the subject, words do not suffice to explain or sum up what has happened. Subtle and tectonic, a breeze and a volcanic tornado. An earthquake and a hummingbird. Those were my first thoughts of the retreat.

More to follow.