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"Pleasure is not a reward and pain is not a punishment. They are just ordinary experiences.” Our running from one or toward another is what heightens our suffering and exactly what the Buddha was referring to when he talked of freedom from suffering. He wasn’t saying that we will never experience pain or sickness or depression ever again (he needed periods of seclusion to re-center himself), he was saying that with awareness we can lessen our suffering. We can behave in such a way, understand in such a way as to not make it worse and even make it better.
So no, suffering is not optional, but our level of attachment to it can be."
Chogyam Thungpa.
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