Pain and the Second Arrow
From a Q&A session with Thich Nhat Hanh, 2011, in response to the question, "I wonder what advice you might have or what practices you might recommend for those of us who are living with physical pain or living with despair in our caring for the world?"
Here is Thay's response:
"And the Buddha said that we should not try to amplify our pain, exaggerate the situation. He used the image of someone who is hit by an arrow, and a few minutes later a second arrow comes and strikes exactly at the same spot. So after the second arrow comes, not only the pain is double, but it can be triple or ten times more painful, intense. So when we have some pain, whether it is physical or mental, we have to recognize it as it is, and we should not exaggerate. Breathing in, I know this is only a minor physical pain. I can very well make friends and peace with it. I can still smile to it. And if you recognize it as it is and do not exaggerate, and then you can make peace with it and you don't suffer much. But if you get angry, revolting against that, if you worry too much, if you imagine that you are going to die very quickly, and then the pain will be multiplied by 100 times, and that is the second arrow, we should not allow it to come. That's recommended by the Buddha. This is very important. Don't exaggerate, don't amplify the pain."
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