You can bear it, you know. You can do it.

I was reading at lunch over at Tropics, enjoying some yellow curry that I had a terrible taste for. I read the following and had to fight back tears.

On one occasion I was sick with what was probably malaria, lying in my hut, feverish and wretched. I had received medicine from a monastery elder, but it was slow in taking effect. Ajahn Chah came to visit me. "Sick and feverish, huh?" he asked. "Yes," I replied weakly. "It's painful all over, isn't it?" I nodded. "Makes you feel sorry for yourself, doesn't it?" I smiled a bit. "Makes you want to go home to see your mother." He smiled, and then nodded. "Yes, it's suffering, alright. Almost all the forest monks have had it. At least now we have good medicine." He paused. "Here. This is where we have to practice. Not just sitting in the meditation hall. It's hard. All the body torment and mind states. You learn a lot." He waited for a while, then he looked at me with the warmth of a kind grandfather. "You can bear it, you know. You can do it." And I felt that he was fully there with me, that he knew my pain from his own hard struggles. It took another day for the medicine to kick in, but his simple kindness made the situation bearable. His compassion gave me courage and helped me find my own freedom in the midst of hardship.

- From The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology by Jack Kornfield

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