Just because you’re a monk, it doesn’t mean that things go right.
When I was young I tried to fix up life. I worked really hard trying to fix things up; it didn’t make much difference. Actually, it usually made things much worse.
Suffering is: asking from life what it can never give you.
That’s what life is all about: the struggle. If it were so easy, it wouldn’t be worth living life. It’s those struggles, those disappointments, which test us. They’re our learning experience; what I always call the growing pains.
Without pain there is no real growth in this life.
When we understand, we actually have realistic expectations of life.