A foundational idea is at the heart of this Buddhist parable: pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. Both sobering and hopeful, if believed, it's an incredibly consequential idea.

The teaching is attributable to the Buddha. An original translation can be found in the footnotes, but essentially it's a story of a student calling the Buddha out on his teachings!

A Paraphrased Retelling - The Second Arrow

A student comes to the Buddha with a challenge:

"You claim your teachings help us transcend suffering, but look at us, we're still growing old, we still get sick and sooner or later we'll both die, how exactly have we transcended suffering?"

The Buddha replies:

"Imagine a man shot by an arrow, if a second arrow hits him in the same spot his pain will not only double but increase ten-fold..."

"The unwelcome parts of life: illness, failure, rejection, old age... these are the first arrow, they are inevitable and cause some pain..."

"The second arrow is our reaction, rumination and resistance - mental suffering. This magnifies our pain and causes immense suffering"

"This second arrow is not inevitable, if you have truly followed my teachings, you will be struck by the first arrow: pain, but spared from the second: suffering".

No Magic Bullets here...

From a secular perspective, this is a refreshing 'religious' teaching, it's not offering any magic bullets - you can't fully escape the pains of life.

It is however still making two extraordinary claims:

1. Mental suffering is not inevitable, it can be eradicated through training and practice.
2. Mental suffering, not pain, comprises the majority of what afflicts us.

Of course, in this context, the Buddha is referencing Buddhist practices, like the Noble Eightfold Path. That said, I think the core principle of this teaching points to a broader point: 'mental training' is possible and important.

The Centrality of Mental Training

There is a curious difference in social norms between physical & mental training. It's obvious to nearly everyone that exercising regularly improves faculties like strength or stamina. In contrast, there is a widespread belief that mental growth stops in adulthood - our personalities and proclivities becoming fixed.

Foundational mental faculties like your ability to pay attention, manage your emotions or have better conversations are often seen as pretty static, and if not static, not a set of skills that you should or could be deliberately training...

This is the fundamental idea that the parable is looking to undercut and also the inspiration for all the posts in this series. Meditation, Heuristics, Practical Philosophies (e.g Stoicism) and Scientific Knowledge can all be doorways to new forms of mental training. Any technique or idea that has the potential to enrich and improve our lives should at least be toyed with.

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your mind. External circumstances matter, but our reactions to them matter more. The mental toolkit we carry around in our heads is what determines our wellbeing and luckily we can always add new tools...