"I think it’s a matter of right understanding, seeing that I have suffering and can practice and do something about it. But a more mature level of right understanding is that it’s not just my suffering. We no longer ask, 'What creates my suffering?' but 'What creates suffering?' When we do this, we start to look into the bigger aspect of the question. We then ask, 'What aspects of my lifestyle create unnecessary complication, stress, burden, attachment, fear, insecurity — in me, my family, my friends, the people I practice with — and how does all of that ripple out into the neighborhood where I live and into the larger society?' We can see this question and our response to it as a further development of practice, a challenge. Can we open up to the larger realm of suffering?"
- Alan Senauke, Barbara Gates, Dennis Crean, Diana Winston, Santikaro, and Wes Nisker, from "A System of Suffering." Inquiring Mind, Spring 2001.
