Resistance is what the Buddha calle

Resistance is what the Buddha called the ‘second arrow’. In a famous parable, he describes the first arrow as whatever painful event life throws your way (a cancer diagnosis, the death of a loved one, getting fired from a job). Those are simply part of life. But the pain we suffer from the second arrow, the dart of resistance (our negative reaction to the first arrow), comes from adding insult to injury with the mindset of No! or It can’t be! or Why me? or I want it to be different – I can’t stand this! As you gnash your teeth and wring your hands, you create the tight, constricted agony of resistance. Your response, is adding an additional level of suffering; your reaction is the ‘second arrow’.