Brian Johnson argues that suffering is universal and unavoidable. He uses the equation suffering equals pain times resistance to show how fighting what hurts only makes it worse. Acceptance, not denial, is what actually reduces suffering's grip.
You gotta realize that suffering is universal. Life is full of suffering. This is literally the first noble truth of Buddhism. Life is full of suffering, period. But I remember once I was going through whatever I was going through, and Steve said, you think you're experiencing this because you're you, but you're not. You're experiencing this because you're human. Now, all of us have our own issues which are contributing to whatever challenges we're facing, but we gotta know suffering is universal. There's an equation for this. Suffering equals pain Pain equals pain times resistance. You deny the presence of suffering, you resist it, pain is gonna be there no matter what. The amount of resistance that you give to something is going to increase your suffering. Some people say the equation is actually suffering equals pain to the power of resistance. It is exponentially going to increase your suffering. So again, the way we deal with that is acceptance. Accept that suffering is both universal and inevitable.
