Card #141 – Authentic Suffering

Sometimes there is a fine line between indulging self-pity, negative tape loops and their associated feelings and authentic suffering, necessary sorrow. Chogyam Trungpa believed that the ideal state for the warrior is broken-heartedness. Sometimes sorrow is what we need to feel, or what someone else is feeling, and we or they need to feel the sorrow as deeply as possible. I’ve always preferred anguish and deep sorrow to depression. It is much better to face the sorrow, feel it as deeply as possible and move on, rather than trying to mitigate or medicate it, which only encourages it to turn into lingering depression.