Ordinary suffering is very genteel in a sense and very friendly. You are just suffering for the sake of suffering. There is confusion because of your own confusion, chaos because of itself. However, you begin to feel that reality is workable. It is very ordinary and at the same time it is threatening–and you are beginning to work with that. So, on the whole, as far as the Buddhist path is concerned, we cannot live without suffering. Suffering brings out our confusion, our reality. It is just like what happens when students ask questions after a talk: they come out with ideas.

From “Exposing Ego’s Dirty Tricks,” in Milarepa: Lessons from the Life and Songs of Tibet’s Great Yogi, pages 63-64.

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