Transforming Pain into Wisdom

This is a transcript of an Early Morning Light talk given at One River Zen. Why get them second-hand? Join us for meditation from 6:30 to 7:15 AM CST, Monday through Friday, and hear these talks in real time. Start your day immersed in wisdom and community as we sit together and explore the path of practice.

It would be foolish to believe that our practice could somehow shield us from pain. Life will present us with moments that shake us to our core, that cause us to experience discomfort and pain. But what we often overlook is how much of our suffering is self-created—the stories we build around that pain.

Suffering emerges when we create a narrative, blaming others or clinging to expectations of how things were supposed to be. Sometimes, this narrative becomes so large that it overshadows the actual pain. When we’re caught up in this story of suffering, we lose our capacity to respond wisely. We can’t open to what’s required to address the pain itself because we’re too entangled in the story surrounding it.

So today, look carefully at what you’re holding on to—the grudges we bear, not just against others but sometimes against the universe itself. Consider the situations you refuse to accept. When you begin to see them for what they are, they’ll naturally start to drop away on their own. Then your attention can return to the actual pain beneath it all. By bearing silent witness to that pain, you allow it to transform into wisdom. In that moment, you’ll know exactly what steps to take as you move forward on your practice journey.