Buddha’s parable of the poisoned arrow has changed my response to suffering

How I command my attention to end suffering.

Thomas Oppong
Personal Growth
Published in
4 min readAug 2, 2024

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Photo by Robin Benad on Unsplash

Buddha’s teachings aim to end “dukkha,” a Pali word for ‘suffering’ or ‘unsatisfactoriness’ of life. Buddha’s first (of four) noble truth is suffering. He thought no matter how we wish it away, it’s not going anywhere. But we can end it by understanding why we suffer.

The story of the exchange between the Buddha and a monk named Malunkyaputta teaches a timeless life lesson on suffering. Distress, despair, uncertainty, disappointment, frustration or inconvenience may be inevitable, but our response to suffering changes everything.

“Suppose, Malunkyaputtta, a man were wounded by an arrow thickly smeared with poison, and his friends and companions, his kinsmen and relatives, brought a surgeon to treat him. The man would say: ‘I will not let the surgeon pull out this arrow until I know whether the man who wounded me was a khattiya, a brahmin, a merchant, or a worker.’ And he would say: ‘I will not let the surgeon pull out this arrow until I know the name and clan of the man who wounded me;… until I know whether the man who wounded me was dark brown, or golden-skinned;… until I know whether the man who wounded me was tall, short, or of middle height…until I know whether the man who wounded me lives…

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Thomas Oppong
Personal Growth

Making the wisdom of great thinkers instantly accessible. As seen on Forbes, Inc. and Business Insider. For my popular essays, go here: https://thomasoppong.com