Stephen Levine Quotes about Suffering

All Stephen Levine Quotes Awareness Compassion Grief Healing Heart Hell Inspirational Joy Letting Go Pain Suffering quotes

Our suffering is caused by holding on to how things might have been, should have been, could have been.

Our suffering is caused by holding on to how things might have been, should have been, could have been.

Stephen Levine

Should Have, Suffering, Might

Stephen Levine, Ondrea Levine (2012). “Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying”, p.3, Anchor

Wanting things to be otherwise is the very essence of suffering. We almost never directly experience what pain is because our reaction to it is so immediate that most of what we call pain is actually our experience of resistance to that phenomenon. And the resistance is usually a good deal more painful than the original sensation.

Stephen Levine

Pain, Essence, Suffering

Letting go of our suffering is the hardest work we will ever do. It is also the most fruitful. To heal means to meet ourselves in a new way -- in the newness of each moment where all is possible and nothing is limited to the old.

Stephen Levine

Letting Go, Mean, Suffering

Stephen Levine (2010). “Healing into Life and Death”, p.55, Anchor

There is nothing noble about suffering except the love and forgiveness with which we meet it. Many believe that if they are suffering they are closer to God, but I have met very few who could keep their heart open to their suffering enough for that to be true. (124)

Stephen Levine

Believe, Heart, Suffering

Stephen Levine (2009). “A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last”, p.143, Harmony