What Can I Do About Emotional Suffering?
How can we distinguish physical pain from emotional suffering and does continued emotional pain mean that seeking has not truly ended?
Rupert says: ‘I make a very clear distinction between physical pain and emotional suffering. Physical pain does not arise on behalf of a separate self, whereas emotional suffering is the apparently separate self’s resistance to what is taking place. If I am suffering, I am by definition seeking.
‘Instead of trying to relieve suffering through the acquisition of objects or substances, I investigate the one on whose behalf it arises. When I look for the hurt or lonely self, I find the feeling but cannot find the separate self. I trace my way back to my being, see that there is no sorrow there and abide in the peace of my true nature.’
*This video is from one of Rupert’s in-person retreats at San Damiano, 15–22 March 2026. For more information on upcoming retreats (many of which can be attended online via livestream) go to:
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Timestamps:
0:00 Recognising the Pathless Path
2:32 Physical Pain and Suffering
4:14 Pain vs Emotional Suffering
5:24 Legitimate Resistance and Care
7:38 Suffering Is Seeking
10:26 Investigating Emotional Resistance
13:14 When the Ego Appropriates the Pathless Path
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