Acharya Prashant addresses the saying, "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional," by affirming that suffering is indeed always optional. However, he clarifies that one cannot hold onto their current world and the rest of what they are, and not have suffering. The desire to avoid suffering without avoiding the rest of one's life and its ways is an impossible demand that cannot be met. Suffering and the rest of one's life emanate from the same center. Therefore, to eliminate suffering, one must also be willing to part with the rest of their life, a price that most find too high to pay. He uses an analogy to explain this connection: it is like a person who wants to maintain their customary lifestyle, diet, and habits, yet wishes to avoid the diseases that are a direct result of that lifestyle. The disease is not a new phenomenon; it is the lifestyle itself that has now become expressed. The two are one. Similarly, the fact that you live the way you do and the fact that you suffer are one and the same fact. We only talk of suffering when it becomes manifest and unavoidable, but at other times, we ourselves are fomenting the trouble. The speaker states that to the extent you are changing, your suffering is also changing, and to the extent you are adamant about retaining yourself, your suffering is also retained. Acharya Prashant advises to forget about suffering and instead look into the areas of life where one thinks they are not suffering, and change those. One has no incentive to change these areas because they seem alright, but that is precisely where the change is needed. He gives an example of a person who lives a certain way for 29 days and has a heart attack on the 30th. Most people would want to change the 30th day, but what they actually need to change are the preceding 29 days. What you think is right with you is exactly where you are going wrong. All that you consider your accomplishments and cleverness is where your hell is hidden. Illusion, or Maya, attacks your perceived strengths, not your weaknesses. Where you think your confidence and certainty lie is exactly where you are being defeated. Therefore, one must be cautious of that which they are sure of, as it is surely false.
