Suffering

Thailand
Bestseller
More than
the miracle 250,000
copies
of

ง
V.VAJIRAMEDHI

่า english  version  by  nopamat  veohong

อย
ตวั
 ง
I READ,

่า
THEREFORE I AM.
อย
ตวั
 The Miracle of Suffering

Copyright ©2012 by Pran Publishing Co., Ltd.
English Text ©2012 by Nopamat Veohong
Illustrations ©2012 by Sutat Palama
All right reserved

National Library of Thailand Cataloging in Publication Data 
Vajiramedhi, V. (Author), Veohong, N (Translator)
The Miracle of Suffering.-- Nonthaburi : Pran, 2015. 
256 pages. 
1. Suffering 2. Happiness 3. Nibbana I. Nopamat Veohong, Translator. 

ง
II. Simon Wright. III. The Miracle of Suffering
294.3122 
ISBN (e-book) 978-616-401-000-0

่า
อย
Published by
Pran Affiliate of Pran Publishing Co., Ltd.
95/8 Soi Kaew-in, Kanchanaphisek, Tambon Saothonghin, Amphoe Bangyai, 
Nonthaburi 11140
Telephone: 0-2422-9000 Facsimile: 0-2195-0582 www.pranbook.com
ตวั

Owner and Publisher: Pran Publishing Limited Company Chief Executive Officer: Chinawat Chanamok
Publishing Managing Director: Rerngrit Thicharn Legal Consultant: Major Colonel Apisek Pisano
Editor-In-Chief: Tawankarn Mungpanklang Editor: Thitirat Sirimuang, Ratthawan Pattanaratchatadul
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Amphoe Bangyai, Nonthaburi 11140 Telephone: 0-2422-9000 Facsimile: 0-2195-0582 Email: pranbook
@hotmail.com
 The

ง
Miracle

่าof
อย
Suffering
ตวั
V.Vajiramedhi
Translated by Nopamat Veohong
 the publisher’s foreword

Just take a good look at your life and you will see 
that soon after you experience suffering, happiness

ง
follows.  Or vice versa, when you’re happy, suffering 
will soon follow suit. These two qualities take turns 

่า
to show up in your life and never stay apart for long.

อย The question is: can one choose discriminatively to 
have only happiness and reject suffering totally?  The
answer is a resounding NO.  Nonetheless, although one 
can’t always avoid unsatisfactoriness in life, one can see
its virtue and turn it around into happiness by one’s
own paradigm shift.
ตวั
In The Miracle of Suffering, V.Vajiramedhi in-
troduces you to how to see the virtue of suffering.  
Whenever you are visited by suffering, you are given 
a noble lesson that the nature of existence has to offer.  
Those who have experienced hardships and suffering 
become strong.  On the contrary, those who have hardly 
 suffered will be fragile, feeble and possessing low
immunity so much so that they will find it difficult to 

ง
handle it when hit by storms of hardship in life.

Knowing that suffering and happiness are what

่า
we will have to be confronted with undeniably, instead 
อย
of evading or avoiding suffering, let us look at it in a
different light and see it, rather, in a way that will bring 
happiness and comfort.

This book was fir st published in Thai in a special 
edition of two hundred thousand copies.  It was so well-
received by the readers who bought it for themselves 
and for distribution as a well-wishing gift that it sold
ตวั
out quickly.  When it was out of print, the publisher 
was asked to reprint it as it is a good and useful book 
that helps readers to get to the truth of the matter and 
understand life better.
 This time the publisher has made some revisions 
and adjustments to the original text, adding two more 
parts: Part 3 Live Happily with Suffering and Part 4 
The Art of Happiness, as well as adding and improving
on the illustrations of four-colour printing, including 
folded wings on the front and back covers with postcard 
drawings by V.Vajiramedhi himself so you can send 
happy wishes to your loved ones.

ง
The publisher sincerely hopes that readers will 
apply the dhamma in this book to their lives with 

่า
satisfactory results and promote good reading to people
around them, true to the publisher’s watchword “I read,
อย
therefore I am”

The Editor-In-Chief
Pran Publishing
ตวั
 the author’s preface

Buddhaship started when Prince Siddhartha

ventured out into the real world and inadvertently found
the old, the sick and the dead, who were the epitome of

ง
suffering. They lived in suffering, experienced suffering
and died in suffering. Later on, he met with ascetics who

่า
found peace and practised austerity in the wilderness
with the goal set on “liberation from suffering”.
อย
Seeing people in such states of suffering was 
the eye-opening lesson that changed the course of
 Siddhartha’s whole life.

Suffering is, admittedly, a threat to humanity and 
all creation.  However, it was this self-same suffering 
ตวั
that led Prince Siddhartha on his search to find the 
way “to end suffering”, the so-called “nibbāna”.

Suffering is a threat to humanity and all creation.  
This is a truth.

Suffering is the fount of the search to end it and 
be liberated from it. This is a truth.
 Hence, there are two sides to the same coin of
suffering.

On one side, suffering is a threat, a danger to be 
avoided.

On the other, suffering is a path to enlightenment.

The Buddha saw suffering from both sides. In the
principle of truth that He discovered called “The Four

ง
Noble Truths”, He reevaluated suffering and called 
it “a noble truth” (dukkhaṁ ariyasaccaṁ).

่า
Suffering is a noble truth because suffering it
อย
self has the property to resolve itself into happiness.  In
one sense, where there is suffering, there is happiness.
In another sense, suffering can be turned over to be
“inspirational” so one can find a greater happiness
in individual happiness and universal happiness for
mankind and ultimately the greatest happiness of
all— nibbāna which is the highest state of non-suffering.
ตวั
The fact that Mahatma Gandhi was ruthlessly 
chased from the first-class train on his way to Pretoria
made him find a turning point in his life. He was known 
to have said “The direst suffering is the most creative.”
 The fact that Nelson Mandela was incarcerated
for twenty-six years by a verdict under the white 
minority colonial government gave him political clout 
and leadership until he reached the highest position, 
nationally and internationally.

The fact that Mother Theresa found the poorest

slums in Mumbai with only a school fence that separated
her convent from the sufferings of her fellow human-

ง
kind made her question the glaring inequality of
humanity and the sufferers’ struggle to survive. That

่า
was the turning point in her life that gave the world an
angel for the poor.

อย Just as suffering was itself attractive, contributing 
and valuable to those prominent celebrities it has its
attraction, contribution and value to us all.

No doubt the Buddha put a high value on suffering
when He said, “Suffering is a noble truth.”
ตวั
So noble is suffering that I have to encourage you 
to “recognise the miracle of suffering."

V.Vajiramedhi
Sun Rise Park, Chiangrai
 contents

The Publisher’s Foreword 4
The Author’s Preface 7

่า ง
Part 1
Say Thanks to Your Suffering 1
อย
Nobody can escape suffering 2
In suffering there is happiness 8
The Noble Suffering 12
Thich Nhat Hanh who used to suffer on a massive scale 16
Suffering is the seed for success 24
ตวั
Turn suffering into happiness 30
Life is good because of suffering 38
With a little help from my friends 46
 ่า ง
Part 2
Embrace your Happiness with a smile 53
อย
Means towards happiness 54
Do not lay trouble on your trouble-free self 60
Look for the right kind of happiness 66
Do not get attached even to the right kind of happiness 72
Cultivate and liberate your mind from suffering 78
ตวั
Definition of happiness 86
Grasping the essentials 90
Let the dhamma guide your life 96
 Part 3
Live happily with Suffering 103

ง
Ways to end suffering 104
The weapons of suffering 112

่า
Seeing through suffering with mindfulness
Know what you are doing
116
124
อย
The past is gone; the future is yet to come 128
Keep knowing what you think and your life will be easier 134

Part 4
The Art of happiness 139
ตวั
Make others happy 140
Have positive reciprocity 154
Know when to give in, when to stop and when to chill out 162
 Part 5
The Four Boons 173

ง
Less suffering, more happiness 174
Longevity 182

่า
Glowing complexion
Physical and mental happiness
202
208
อย
Good health 216

Addenda: The Golden words 221

For all-time auspices 222
There is nothing like… 223
ตวั
Positive thinking 224
Best deals 226
Less and more 228
The hidden meaning of thanks 229

About the Author 230
ตวั
อย
่าง
 1

Say Thanks
to Your Suffering

่า ง
อย
When you suffer mindlessly, 
the suffering itself will escape your notice.
But with mindfulness, you will
see it for what it is. As soon as you see it,
it will automatically transform
itself into happiness.
ตวั
Thus, according to the Buddha,
suffering is the Noble Truth because 
suffering is a means towards happiness.
 Nobody can escape
suffering

่า ง
อย
ตวั
 Everyone is either afraid of 
or shuns suffering. Therefore, 
the noble truth must be a truth 
that leads to the cessation 
of suffering, the so-called 
ariyasacca in Buddhism.

L ่า ง
et me ask you, dear readers: have
อย you ever suffered? Who amongst
you hasn’t experienced any kind
of suffering, pain or discontent? We all 
have, haven’t we? Millionaires suffer like
the rich. Poor people suffer like the poor. 
All the same, all of us are afflicted with
ตวั
suffering in one way or another; only the 
causes and conditions differ and belong 
to us individually. In short, we all suffer 
for our individual reasons.
Michael Jackson was so admired 
and popular. We would love to believe 
 that, unlike all of us, such an immensely popular and gifted 
person would be free of or immune from the same mundane 
suffering as is our experience. But do you know how much 
he suffered? When he was in the public eye, he looked as 
if he was enjoying himself tremendously and gave everyone 
ecstatic happiness. However, here is the summary of his 
life I put in my word: he was publicly happy but privately 
miserable. When he was on stage he made his audience 
happy, even delirious, but when he was alone, he apparently 

ง
suffered in private. No one was there to share his suffering. 
In an interview Jackson said, “If possible, I would love to sleep 

่า
on stage, if only I could, because I realise that this is where 
I can be most happy. When I am home, I don’t see anyone who 
อย
loves me truly for who I am.” How many managers did he 
have? How many record companies did he deal with? How
many advertising agencies came to him hoping to make 
profits out of him and take advantage of his enormous talent? 
No one loved him truly. That’s how he felt and suffered.
Just think about it. Why was it that such a sky-rocketing 
ตวั
celebrity harboured so much pain and suffering? It only 
goes to show that everyone has his own share of suffering 
without discrimination.
However, the suffering we experience is far from noble 
as long as we don’t recognise it as such. So many people can 
hardly see their suffering because they spend all the time 

4 The Miracle of Suffering

 engulfed in distress and wallowing in it. Much though they 
suffer, they don’t ‘see’ the suffering itself.
A pupil of mine was at an Insight-Meditation class I 
offered in a Kilesa (Defilement) Management course. She was 
restless and distraught. After my lecture she came to pay her
courtesy respects and started weeping. 
“What’s the matter with you?" I asked. 
She said, “I’m so miserable.” 
“From what?” 

ง
 
“It has to do with my bottled-up anger, your holiness. 
When anger arises I want to be able to suppress it immediately. 

่า
But I can’t do that. I am made so sore by it. I’ve practised 
dhamma for five long years and, when I become angry, I try 
อย
to cut it off in an instant but it won’t go away as I wish.”
   
So I said, “As I see it, you don’t suffer from anger. You 
suffer because you want to get rid of your anger. The anger 
itself is not threatening you. What’s threatening you is the 
desire to get rid of your anger at will. When you can’t do it at 
well, you become angry on top of your anger per se. It’s 
double anger that’s plaguing you.
ตวั
The double anger is: 
1. The anger per se.
2. The anger with which you can’t deal properly.

V.Vajiramedhi 5