How to Deal With Suffering in Relationships

The way in which we protect ourselves from suffering, from our own and from each other's is one of the things that makes relationships so difficult. If you scratch the surface of every person in this room, you will find that there is some suffering. Griga, the russian philosopher, said, there is nothing that can be attained spiritually without suffering in life. But at the same time, if you are going to proceed on the journey, you must sacrifice suffering. You hear that dual nature of it. You have to have suffered. The suffering is what burns through you and brings deepens the compassion and opens the door.