Keep toiling even harder – The unexpected key to ending suffering

**Summary:** The way out of suffering is not through letting go or running away, but through choosing an even more arduous path to transcend all pain in this life.

Have you ever wondered: why is it that everyone in this life has it hard? The lottery ticket seller under the sun and rain, the wealthy person driving a luxury car yet burdened with bank loans, the doctor on hospital duty during the Lunar New Year, the king worrying about state affairs until an early death… Everyone carries their own form of suffering. So, is there a way to end this hardship? Today, let us explore with Venerable Thích Chân Quang a truth that sounds counterintuitive yet is profoundly deep.

**No one in this world is truly happy**

We often look at others and think they have it better than us. But when we truly place ourselves in their circumstances, we realize everyone has their own struggles. The elderly woman selling lottery tickets to care for sick children, the company owner whose debts exceed their assets, the doctor who got their nose broken by a patient during a shift… All are enduring pressures that no one else sees.

“Reflecting thus, no one sees themselves as happy.”

The Buddha taught, “Life is suffering” – many hear this yet do not believe it. But at some point, after many experiences, we suddenly understand: this life is truly filled with hardship; only, each person’s position differs.

**Letting go – A mistaken advice**

When faced with suffering, many think the only solution is to let go. Quit the job, leave the family, abandon responsibilities to seek peace. But Venerable Chân Quang affirms: “letting go” is never the true solution. Because no matter where you escape to, karmic debts and responsibilities will still follow you.

“If someone tells me that to end all troubles and sufferings in this life, one only needs to practice ‘letting go’ – that is wrong, that is very shallow.”

Look at life: a mother cannot abandon her child when the child is ill, a creditor cannot abandon their business when they must still pay wages to workers, a king cannot abandon the throne when the nation still has many affairs. Letting go is merely avoidance; it does not resolve the root cause.

**The Buddha taught: You must endure hardship even further**

The Buddha taught that the path out of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path – eight aspects of practice, each immensely difficult. Right View alone requires many lifetimes to understand correctly. Thus, there is no shortcut to ending suffering.

“To avoid extreme hardship, one must endure hardship. This is the true teaching, not letting go.”

It may sound paradoxical, but the reality is: if you are suffering at level five and wish to escape it, you must accept enduring suffering at level six or seven. You must rise above your own suffering, not flee from it.

**The story of the lottery-selling grandmother**

The Venerable told of an elderly woman selling lottery tickets – her life was incredibly hard. Yet she did not give up. She chose a harder path: picking up trash by the road, giving directions to strangers, buying cups of soy milk for road workers. Years later, someone who bought a lottery ticket by mistake won the jackpot and shared one billion dong with her – her life was transformed.

“When in hardship, we endure even more hardship, then we are free from hardship. But when in hardship, if we abandon, if we run away, we will never be free from hardship.”

This is not a fairy tale, but the law of karma. When we willingly take on more suffering to help others, blessings from merit will arrive in the most unexpected ways. That is the beautiful day that a practitioner waits for.

**Applying this in life**

So, for a doctor overwhelmed by holiday duty, what is the solution? Not to quit the profession, but to volunteer to take shifts for colleagues, to care for poor patients with even greater dedication. For a worker, do more than the assigned responsibility. Just be diligent, keep adding effort – then one day, good opportunities will come.

“Be diligent, endure hardship beyond your duty, do more than the responsibility assigned – only then will hardship end.”

This is how the lottery-selling grandmother received one billion dong, how that doctor was invited to become the director of a private hospital. Endure hardship now so that later there will be no more hardship.

**The Buddha is one who always endures hardship beyond their current hardship**

Finally, we understand that the journey to end suffering never stops. The higher one ascends, the greater the responsibility, the more hardship there is. But the Buddha pointed out: the enlightened being is one who always rises above their present suffering.

“The Buddha is one who always endures hardship beyond their current hardship.”

Let us start from today. Do not avoid, do not lament. Choose the even more arduous path – for within that sacrifice and devotion, you will find true peace and happiness. May you have a beautiful day!