Dress with arrows

The concept of "first arrows" and "second arrows" from the book "Buddhas Brain" by Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius! This is an important concept in Buddhist psychology that helps to understand how we react to suffering.

The first arrow is a direct physical or emotional feeling of pain, discomfort or trouble. This is an inevitable part of life. For example, it can be physical pain, the loss of a loved one, failure at work or just a bad mood.

The second arrow is our reaction to the first arrow: our thoughts, feelings and behavior that we add to the initial pain. This is our resistance, rejection, fear, anger and self-flagellation. The second arrow is what makes the suffering more intense and long-lasting.

The main idea of this picture is that we cannot avoid the first arrows (pain and trouble are inevitable), but we can learn not to shoot at ourselves with second arrows. We can learn to accept our feelings, not resist them and not aggravate them with our negative thoughts and emotions.