When someone is suffering, there is a deep, visceral reaction in the core of our being, a flood of empathy and a frightfully desperate compulsion to give aid.

Eons of suffering, brutality and struggle have paved the way through the corridors of time to create this moment, where you exist as an exalted expression of life.

When we oppose oppression, we lift our hands from the collective reins that empower such oppression.

Your suffering needs to be respected. Don't try to ignore the hurt, because it is real. Just let the hurt soften you instead of hardening you. Let the hurt open you instead of closing you. Let the hurt send you looking for those who will accept you instead of hiding from those who reject you.

Through spiritual maturity you will see new ways to avoid unnecessary suffering; wiser ways to endure unavoidable hardships with grace, and opportunities to turn your pain into lessons of service and healing for others.

Suffering is one of life's great teachers.

They say our suffering is an inevitable part of the human condition; just accept it. But the greatest human skill is that of a choice maker.

Are you so dead inside you don't feel the daily anguish, terror and deathly suffering of millions? What happened to you? You've changed.

If you don't accept and respect your suffering, it isn't going anywhere.