When the suffering is almost intolerable.
When you’ve had all you think you can take.
When you can’t comprehend what the “gift” in the pain might be.
When it’s not making any sense. When you’re asking, God, Life, WHY?
There’s this:
May my suffering be of service.
At the very least.
May some good come of this.
If not for me, for someone else.
Some good.
At the very least.
May my suffering be of service.
It’s a sublime Buddhist approach to pain. When you’re in hell, the notion that your agony might have some divine utility helps you endure. It’s a light ray of reason, a thread of meaning that you can grab onto in deep confusion.
Your suffering is of service. @DanielleLaPorte (Click to Tweet!)
When you’re on the other side of the pain, your “I’ve-been-through-it-wisdom” is going to comfort someone else, perhaps many people, profoundly. And when you’re in the real time suffering, it’s a contribution even then. You are burning energetic pathways. You’re clearing space, and rectifying, and learning — you’re coming to know life more deeply. And that (very hard earned) power is fuelling collective expansion.
It’s a prayer, really:
May my suffering be of service.
Danielle LaPorte is the creator of The Desire Map: A Guide To Creating Goals With Soul — the book that turned into a day planner system, a top iTunes app, and an international workshop program. A Desire Map workshop happens every weekend somewhere in the world. Author of The Fire Starter Sessions and the wildly popular #Truthbomb series, Danielle is also the co-creator of Your Big Beautiful Book Plan and co-host of the Beautiful Writer’s Group podcast.
Entrepreneur Magazine calls her “equal parts poet and entrepreneurial badass…edgy, contrarian…loving and inspired.” A speaker, poet, former business strategist and Washington-DC think tank exec, she writes weekly at DanielleLaPorte.com, where over four million visitors have gone for her straight-up advice — a site that’s been deemed “the best place online for kick-ass spirituality,” and was named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes. The Huffington Post named her Twitter feed as one of the “12 of Wisest Twitter Accounts Worth Following.” You can find her @daniellelaporte just about everywhere.
