Toni Bernhard is the author of How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and their Caregivers and How to Wake Up: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow (Wisdom, Fall 2013). How to Be Sick was named one of the best books of 2010 by Spirituality and Practice. From 1982-2004, Toni was a law professor at the University of California—Davis, serving six years as the dean of students. She has been a practicing Buddhist for over 20 years. Her blog, “Turning Straw Into Gold” is hosted on the website of Psychology Today.
No one wants to suffer, and yet stress is everywhere in our lives. After the Buddha awakened under the Bodhi Tree, the first thing he talked about was how to find true happiness.
He described four wise ways you can work with your mind in the midst of ordinary and meditative experiences, popularly known as the Four Noble Truths. You can (1) comprehend your suffering; (2) abandon its causes; (3) realize that it is possible to end suffering; and (4) follow the path that leads to its end. Practicing this path, you will become free—not by avoiding what is unwanted, but by developing a wise relationship to your mind and all the myriad conditions by which it manufactures stress.
