Suffering Equals Your Pain Multiplied by Your Resistance
"There is an analogy for the difference between pain and suffering that, while not completely accurate, gives you a feel for its impact in your life. Imagine that you have a sore shoulder, so sore that you can't comfortably lift your arm. It is hurting right now. Let's say the amount of discomfort is five units of pain. Now imagine that you begin to resent the discomfort, become irritated by the limitation it's causing, and you start thinking it's going to ruin your vacation at the beach next month. You've just added seven units of resistance to the pain, only suffering doesn't equal the five units of pain plus the seven units of resistance, it is a multiple of the two, meaning you're now experiencing 35 units of suffering. At 12 units of pain, you could go on with your life just fine, but 24 units of suffering starts to affect your attitude.
"Now imagine that you have 15 units of pain and your resistance is 20 units, now you are coping with 300 units of suffering! Your mind becomes obsessed and you see the world as an awful place. You can understand why it is that some people you know suffer so much more than would seem appropriate for their problems. Their pain may not be that great, but their resistance is huge, 50 or 100 units for instance. They have so much suffering, yet it is so unnecessary.
"Although not as precisely mathematical as this example, there is a multiplying effect in the mind between discomfort of the moment and resistance to the moment and it greatly increases suffering, as you can observe for yourself. Feelings of listlessness, despair, frustration, and collapse are often indications of the amount of resistance, rather than the actual pain of the moment. Surrounding conditions such as lack of support in your life or overwhelming responsibilities then add more internal anguish and elicit even more resistance in you. It is this interplay of desire and resistance with surrounding conditions that accounts for why you sink into suffering in one situation and don't in another. It is also true that joy multiplied by clinging equals suffering."
