Reacting to the Pain

Buddhism has long argued that we are not going to be able to get rid of all the bad stuff in life. The continued existence of pain, or what the buddhists call duka, is so important that it's considered the first of the four noble truths. When we respond to negative events, we also get hit with what he called a second arrow. In life, we can't always control that first arrow, but the pain from the second arrow is totally under our control. Whether we freak out or try to suppress what we're feeling, that second arrow is optional and on us.