A comparison of the management of physical and emotional discomfort in Stoicism, Lo Jong and the spirituality of Saint Francis of Assisi
When we compare Stoicism, Lo Jong (Tibetan Buddhist mind training) and the Prayer of St Francis, we discover a profound and universal model for achieving inner peace and ethical clarity. The fundamental aim of transforming oneself to better serve the world is shared by these three very different traditions, despite their origins in ancient Greece, medieval Tibet and Renaissance Italy, and the cultural differences that set them apart.
Below are some key principles, in preparation for the following chapters.
2. Principles of Stoicism
Stoicism teaches that, whilst it is not always possible to control external events such as physical illness or tragedy, it is possible to control the way in which we judge them. This is because pain is often exacerbated by our mental commentary.
It is also possible to reduce pain or suffering by separating the physical sensation from the narrative. ‘This is merely a sensation in my nerves; it cannot harm my character or my mind.’ Do not exacerbate the pain by worrying about the future.
The Stoic Seneca wrote: ‘Pain is mild if opinion has added nothing to it.’ Take a step back and observe your suffering within the vast context of the universe to lessen its emotional impact.
Stoicism is based on reason (logos) and fortitude of mind. It teaches you to control your mind in order to achieve ataraxia (unshakable tranquillity), enabling you to fulfil your duty towards humanity.
Stoicism teaches that physical pain is simply a bodily sensation and not a moral evil. It belongs to the realm of indifferent things — those beyond our direct moral control.
The lines below illustrate the 10 fundamental methods for managing pain and suffering, comparing them with the Stoic tradition’s approach to these issues.
Objective deconstruction:
View physical sensations as ‘indifferent, preferred or non-preferred’ rather than as cosmic evils.
Alchemical transformation:
Use the obstacle as fuel; pain cultivates the virtues of endurance and courage.
Dichotomy of control:
Draw a line between the involuntary physical signal and the voluntary mental assent.
Radical acceptance:
Practise Amor Fati (love of fate); accept the body’s current condition without resentment.
The present moment:
Remain anchored in the present; free yourself from past regrets and future anxieties that amplify pain.
Self-transcendence:
Remember the Cosmopolis; you are a single cell in the vast, interconnected body of Nature.
Ego reduction:
Dismantle the fragile ego that cries out: ‘Why is this happening to me of all people?’.
Intentional resilience:
View pain as a training ground (palaestra) for testing and demonstrating inner character.
Emotional self-control:
Refuse to let physical impulses trigger secondary emotional reactions such as anger or despair.
Cosmic interconnectedness:
Accept the laws of nature; decay and physical limitations are inherent to being human.
3. The principles of Lo Jong
Dating back to the 12th century, Lo Jong is a Tibetan Buddhist mind training system consisting of slogans designed to transform adversity and pain into positive forces. In ‘Focus all blame on one thing’, rather than harbouring resentment towards an illness, an injury or someone who has hurt you, you learn to blame only the ego’s expectation that life should always be comfortable. Rather than fighting pain, Lo Jong uses it to cultivate supreme compassion; you can transform negative circumstances into a positive path by treating physical and emotional pain as fuel for awakening.
In the Lo Jong practice known as Tonglen (the meditation on giving and receiving), you breathe in your current pain and imagine absorbing the pain of all other people in the world who are suffering in a similar way. You then breathe out relief, peace and healing towards them. This instantly breaks the isolation of suffering.
Lo Jong is a Tibetan Buddhist mind-training practice that takes a radically different approach to pain. Rather than merely enduring it, it embraces it as a source of spiritual growth. Your personal suffering becomes an act of universal compassion. Lo Jong is based on radical compassion. It teaches you to use every offence, pain and difficulty as a mental exercise to crush the ego and develop universal love.
The lines below illustrates the 10 fundamental methods for managing pain and suffering, comparing them with the approach taken by the Lo Jong tradition.
Deconstruction Objective:
To recognise pain as empty in nature, an impermanent construct of the ego.
Alchemical Transformation:
‘Concentrate all blame in a single point’. Use pain to destroy the self-centred ego.
Dichotomy of Control:
To understand that the ultimate nature of reality (Emptiness) is not influenced by sensory conditions.
Radical Acceptance:
Rather than seeking comfort, it encourages you to offer it, thereby breaking the vicious circle of self-centredness on which emotional pain thrives. The prayer asks you to bring love where there is hatred and light where there is darkness.
Even when you’re in pain, find small ways to comfort others. Send a message to a friend who’s going through a difficult time, or perform a small act of kindness. By becoming a source of healing for others, your emotional burden will be lightened.
When you are overwhelmed by physical or emotional pain, St Francis advises looking outwards. By focusing on comforting someone else, you temporarily calm your brain’s pain receptors. You realise that by ‘letting go’ of your self-concern, you can achieve inner peace.
The following outlines the 10 fundamental methods for managing pain and suffering, comparing them with the approach of the tradition of St Francis of Assisi.
Objective deconstruction:
Letting go of judgement, seeking to bring light where there is darkness.
Alchemical transformation:
Transforming negative states into instruments of divine peace.
The dichotomy of control:
Accepting one’s inability to control external storms; focusing on offering love.
Radical acceptance:
Seeking to understand one’s own condition and that of the world rather than fighting it.
The present moment:
Living step by step as an active and present channel of peace.
Self-transcendence:
‘It is in giving that we receive’: shifting one’s attention completely away from self-pity.
Ego reduction:
Ask to be a selfless instrument, seeking comfort for others rather than for yourself.
Mindful resilience:
View suffering as a path towards eternal rebirth and a deeper sense of alignment.
Emotional self-control:
Counteract hatred, pain and doubt with love, forgiveness and faith.
Cosmic interconnectedness:
Connect with a higher, universal reality to find deep and transcendent comfort.
5. Multicultural perspective
To cope with physical and emotional pain or suffering in a modern, multicultural society such as ours, it is essential to have an approach that incorporates a multicultural perspective. Therefore, by combining Stoicism, Tibetan Lo Jong and the Prayer of St Francis of Assisi, it is possible to build a powerful arsenal of tools to address pain through reason, compassion and acceptance.
Below is a detailed analysis of the 10 essential principles of Stoicism, together with a direct comparison of how these same ideas are reflected in Lo Jong and the Prayer of St Francis. The descriptions below are listed in the following order, with references to the letters: Stoic Principle (S), Lo Jong practice (Tibetan Buddhism) (L) and the Prayer of St Francis (Christian mysticism) (F)
(S) The dichotomy of control
(L) Letting go of expectations: a slogan goes: ‘Concentrate all blame on a single source’ (taking responsibility for one’s own mind rather than trying to correct external factors).
(F) Surrendering to divine will: expressed by asking to be an instrument rather than the director, accepting things as they are.
(S) The Four Virtues
(L) Bodhicitta: cultivating the supreme intention to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings through rigorous mental discipline.
(F) Active virtue: ‘Where there is hatred, may I sow love; where there is offence, forgiveness…’, embodying courage and justice.
(S) Amor Fati
(L) Transforming adverse circumstances: the foundational text of Lo Jong teaches us to bring all adverse conditions onto the path to enlightenment.
(F) Radical acceptance: embracing pain, darkness and even death (‘Sister Death’) as natural transitions.
(S) Transforming obstacles into opportunities
(L) Tonglen meditation: exchanging oneself for others by mentally inhaling the suffering/poison of the world and exhaling peace.
(F) Alchemical reframing: viewing darkness as the very space needed for light to emerge; pain as the catalyst for granting forgiveness.
(S) Memento Mori
(L) The impermanence of life: constantly meditating on death and the preciousness of human life in order to overcome worldly attachments.
(F) Eternal perspective: ‘It is by dying that we are born into eternal life’, thereby eliminating the existential fear of physical death.
(S) Control of reactions
(L) Mindfulness and detachment: observing thoughts without allowing them to crystallise into destructive emotional reactions or anger.
(F) Perfect composure: seeking to comfort rather than demanding comfort, overcoming the primary reactive impulses typical of mammals.
(S) Cosmopolitanism
(L) All beings as one’s own mother: realising that every sentient being is interconnected, thereby removing the barrier between ‘self’ and ‘other’.
(F) Instruments of peace: acting as a bridge of cosmic harmony, seeing oneself as intimately intertwined with the well-being of others.
(S) Reducing the ego
(L) Overcoming selfishness: explicitly training oneself to banish the ego (‘Banish the sole principal object of blame’ — the ego).
(F) Radical altruism: ‘It is in giving that we receive; it is in forgiving that we are forgiven; it is in self-forgetfulness that we find ourselves’.
(S) The present moment
(L) Continuous awareness: keeping the mind anchored to the present reality of one’s current mental training mantras.
(F) Immediate action: do not hope for peace in some abstract future, but sow love, faith and joy right now, in the immediate moment.
(S) Philosophy as action
(L) The Bodhisattva’s Path: the absolute mandate that mental training must translate into compassionate physical action towards others.
(F) The call to service: the entire prayer is a plea for action (‘let me sow’, ‘let me carry’), which rejects passive contemplation.
6. Conclusion: the outcome of an intercultural solution
All three of these systems agree on the most fundamental human truth. True freedom does not lie in changing the external circumstances of one’s life, but in changing one’s inner relationship with them.
Stoicism, Lo Jong (Tibetan Buddhist mental training) and the Prayer of St Francis provide profound and partly overlapping mental frameworks for dealing with physical pain and emotional distress.
Stoicism emphasises personal sovereignty over inner judgements; Lo Jong transforms adversity into spiritual awakening; and the Prayer of St Francis promotes self-transcendence and radical empathy.
Managing physical pain and emotional suffering requires shifting one’s focus from resistance to transformation. Both Lo Jong and the Christian mysticism of St Francis’s Prayer for Peace offer complementary tools for transforming distress into a means of spiritual growth and altruism.
Whilst Lo Jong employs a psychological and analytical framework to dispel the illusion of an independent self, St Francis draws on a devotional and relational framework to surrender the self to God. Ultimately, both traditions agree on a profound psychological truth: suffering diminishes the moment we cease to focus entirely on our own well-being and redirect our energy towards alleviating the pain of others.
Highlighting such comparisons between cultural values can bring joy to the hearts of many people, especially those living in open societies characterised by modern democratic values and a rich cultural heritage founded on respect, peace and unity.
Stoicism teaches that, whilst it is not always possible to control external events such as physical illness or tragedy, it is possible to control the way in which we judge them. This is because pain is often exacerbated by our mental commentary.
It is also possible to reduce pain or suffering by separating the physical sensation from the narrative. ‘This is merely a sensation in my nerves; it cannot harm my character or my mind.’ Do not exacerbate the pain by worrying about the future.
The Stoic Seneca wrote: ‘Pain is mild if opinion has added nothing to it.’ Take a step back and observe your suffering within the vast context of the universe to lessen its emotional impact.
Stoicism is based on reason (logos) and fortitude of mind. It teaches you to control your mind in order to achieve ataraxia (unshakable tranquillity), enabling you to fulfil your duty towards humanity.
Stoicism teaches that physical pain is simply a bodily sensation and not a moral evil. It belongs to the realm of indifferent things — those beyond our direct moral control.
The lines below illustrate the 10 fundamental methods for managing pain and suffering, comparing them with the Stoic tradition’s approach to these issues.
Objective deconstruction:
View physical sensations as ‘indifferent, preferred or non-preferred’ rather than as cosmic evils.
Alchemical transformation:
Use the obstacle as fuel; pain cultivates the virtues of endurance and courage.
Dichotomy of control:
Draw a line between the involuntary physical signal and the voluntary mental assent.
Radical acceptance:
Practise Amor Fati (love of fate); accept the body’s current condition without resentment.
The present moment:
Remain anchored in the present; free yourself from past regrets and future anxieties that amplify pain.
Self-transcendence:
Remember the Cosmopolis; you are a single cell in the vast, interconnected body of Nature.
Ego reduction:
Dismantle the fragile ego that cries out: ‘Why is this happening to me of all people?’.
Intentional resilience:
View pain as a training ground (palaestra) for testing and demonstrating inner character.
Emotional self-control:
Refuse to let physical impulses trigger secondary emotional reactions such as anger or despair.
Cosmic interconnectedness:
Accept the laws of nature; decay and physical limitations are inherent to being human.
3. The principles of Lo Jong
Dating back to the 12th century, Lo Jong is a Tibetan Buddhist mind training system consisting of slogans designed to transform adversity and pain into positive forces. In ‘Focus all blame on one thing’, rather than harbouring resentment towards an illness, an injury or someone who has hurt you, you learn to blame only the ego’s expectation that life should always be comfortable. Rather than fighting pain, Lo Jong uses it to cultivate supreme compassion; you can transform negative circumstances into a positive path by treating physical and emotional pain as fuel for awakening.
In the Lo Jong practice known as Tonglen (the meditation on giving and receiving), you breathe in your current pain and imagine absorbing the pain of all other people in the world who are suffering in a similar way. You then breathe out relief, peace and healing towards them. This instantly breaks the isolation of suffering.
Lo Jong is a Tibetan Buddhist mind-training practice that takes a radically different approach to pain. Rather than merely enduring it, it embraces it as a source of spiritual growth. Your personal suffering becomes an act of universal compassion. Lo Jong is based on radical compassion. It teaches you to use every offence, pain and difficulty as a mental exercise to crush the ego and develop universal love.
The lines below illustrates the 10 fundamental methods for managing pain and suffering, comparing them with the approach taken by the Lo Jong tradition.
Deconstruction Objective:
To recognise pain as empty in nature, an impermanent construct of the ego.
Alchemical Transformation:
‘Concentrate all blame in a single point’. Use pain to destroy the self-centred ego.
Dichotomy of Control:
To understand that the ultimate nature of reality (Emptiness) is not influenced by sensory conditions.
Radical Acceptance:
To joyfully integrate unexpected adverse conditions into the path towards enlightenment.
The present moment:
Maintain awareness of the breath (Tonglen) in the here and now.
Self-transcendence.
Practise Tonglen: breathe in the suffering of all beings, breathe out relief.
Reduction of the ego:
Identify the ‘egocentric mind’ as the true source of all emotional anguish.
Mindful resilience:
Embrace illness and adversity as a swift way to exhaust negative karma.
Emotional self-control:
Protect the mind from emotional reactivity; do not react to external circumstances.
Cosmic interconnection:
Understand the fundamental equality of all sentient beings who experience suffering.
4. The principles of St Francis of Assisi’s Prayer for Peace
St Francis of Assisi’s Prayer for Peace centres on peace and surrender. It diverts your attention away from your own suffering, inspiring you to become a positive force in the lives of others. It transforms you from a passive victim into an active agent of love.
The present moment:
Maintain awareness of the breath (Tonglen) in the here and now.
Self-transcendence.
Practise Tonglen: breathe in the suffering of all beings, breathe out relief.
Reduction of the ego:
Identify the ‘egocentric mind’ as the true source of all emotional anguish.
Mindful resilience:
Embrace illness and adversity as a swift way to exhaust negative karma.
Emotional self-control:
Protect the mind from emotional reactivity; do not react to external circumstances.
Cosmic interconnection:
Understand the fundamental equality of all sentient beings who experience suffering.
4. The principles of St Francis of Assisi’s Prayer for Peace
St Francis of Assisi’s Prayer for Peace centres on peace and surrender. It diverts your attention away from your own suffering, inspiring you to become a positive force in the lives of others. It transforms you from a passive victim into an active agent of love.
Rather than seeking comfort, it encourages you to offer it, thereby breaking the vicious circle of self-centredness on which emotional pain thrives. The prayer asks you to bring love where there is hatred and light where there is darkness.
Even when you’re in pain, find small ways to comfort others. Send a message to a friend who’s going through a difficult time, or perform a small act of kindness. By becoming a source of healing for others, your emotional burden will be lightened.
When you are overwhelmed by physical or emotional pain, St Francis advises looking outwards. By focusing on comforting someone else, you temporarily calm your brain’s pain receptors. You realise that by ‘letting go’ of your self-concern, you can achieve inner peace.
The following outlines the 10 fundamental methods for managing pain and suffering, comparing them with the approach of the tradition of St Francis of Assisi.
Objective deconstruction:
Letting go of judgement, seeking to bring light where there is darkness.
Alchemical transformation:
Transforming negative states into instruments of divine peace.
The dichotomy of control:
Accepting one’s inability to control external storms; focusing on offering love.
Radical acceptance:
Seeking to understand one’s own condition and that of the world rather than fighting it.
The present moment:
Living step by step as an active and present channel of peace.
Self-transcendence:
‘It is in giving that we receive’: shifting one’s attention completely away from self-pity.
Ego reduction:
Ask to be a selfless instrument, seeking comfort for others rather than for yourself.
Mindful resilience:
View suffering as a path towards eternal rebirth and a deeper sense of alignment.
Emotional self-control:
Counteract hatred, pain and doubt with love, forgiveness and faith.
Cosmic interconnectedness:
Connect with a higher, universal reality to find deep and transcendent comfort.
5. Multicultural perspective
To cope with physical and emotional pain or suffering in a modern, multicultural society such as ours, it is essential to have an approach that incorporates a multicultural perspective. Therefore, by combining Stoicism, Tibetan Lo Jong and the Prayer of St Francis of Assisi, it is possible to build a powerful arsenal of tools to address pain through reason, compassion and acceptance.
Below is a detailed analysis of the 10 essential principles of Stoicism, together with a direct comparison of how these same ideas are reflected in Lo Jong and the Prayer of St Francis. The descriptions below are listed in the following order, with references to the letters: Stoic Principle (S), Lo Jong practice (Tibetan Buddhism) (L) and the Prayer of St Francis (Christian mysticism) (F)
(S) The dichotomy of control
(L) Letting go of expectations: a slogan goes: ‘Concentrate all blame on a single source’ (taking responsibility for one’s own mind rather than trying to correct external factors).
(F) Surrendering to divine will: expressed by asking to be an instrument rather than the director, accepting things as they are.
(S) The Four Virtues
(L) Bodhicitta: cultivating the supreme intention to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings through rigorous mental discipline.
(F) Active virtue: ‘Where there is hatred, may I sow love; where there is offence, forgiveness…’, embodying courage and justice.
(S) Amor Fati
(L) Transforming adverse circumstances: the foundational text of Lo Jong teaches us to bring all adverse conditions onto the path to enlightenment.
(F) Radical acceptance: embracing pain, darkness and even death (‘Sister Death’) as natural transitions.
(S) Transforming obstacles into opportunities
(L) Tonglen meditation: exchanging oneself for others by mentally inhaling the suffering/poison of the world and exhaling peace.
(F) Alchemical reframing: viewing darkness as the very space needed for light to emerge; pain as the catalyst for granting forgiveness.
(S) Memento Mori
(L) The impermanence of life: constantly meditating on death and the preciousness of human life in order to overcome worldly attachments.
(F) Eternal perspective: ‘It is by dying that we are born into eternal life’, thereby eliminating the existential fear of physical death.
(S) Control of reactions
(L) Mindfulness and detachment: observing thoughts without allowing them to crystallise into destructive emotional reactions or anger.
(F) Perfect composure: seeking to comfort rather than demanding comfort, overcoming the primary reactive impulses typical of mammals.
(S) Cosmopolitanism
(L) All beings as one’s own mother: realising that every sentient being is interconnected, thereby removing the barrier between ‘self’ and ‘other’.
(F) Instruments of peace: acting as a bridge of cosmic harmony, seeing oneself as intimately intertwined with the well-being of others.
(S) Reducing the ego
(L) Overcoming selfishness: explicitly training oneself to banish the ego (‘Banish the sole principal object of blame’ — the ego).
(F) Radical altruism: ‘It is in giving that we receive; it is in forgiving that we are forgiven; it is in self-forgetfulness that we find ourselves’.
(S) The present moment
(L) Continuous awareness: keeping the mind anchored to the present reality of one’s current mental training mantras.
(F) Immediate action: do not hope for peace in some abstract future, but sow love, faith and joy right now, in the immediate moment.
(S) Philosophy as action
(L) The Bodhisattva’s Path: the absolute mandate that mental training must translate into compassionate physical action towards others.
(F) The call to service: the entire prayer is a plea for action (‘let me sow’, ‘let me carry’), which rejects passive contemplation.
6. Conclusion: the outcome of an intercultural solution
All three of these systems agree on the most fundamental human truth. True freedom does not lie in changing the external circumstances of one’s life, but in changing one’s inner relationship with them.
Stoicism, Lo Jong (Tibetan Buddhist mental training) and the Prayer of St Francis provide profound and partly overlapping mental frameworks for dealing with physical pain and emotional distress.
Stoicism emphasises personal sovereignty over inner judgements; Lo Jong transforms adversity into spiritual awakening; and the Prayer of St Francis promotes self-transcendence and radical empathy.
Managing physical pain and emotional suffering requires shifting one’s focus from resistance to transformation. Both Lo Jong and the Christian mysticism of St Francis’s Prayer for Peace offer complementary tools for transforming distress into a means of spiritual growth and altruism.
Whilst Lo Jong employs a psychological and analytical framework to dispel the illusion of an independent self, St Francis draws on a devotional and relational framework to surrender the self to God. Ultimately, both traditions agree on a profound psychological truth: suffering diminishes the moment we cease to focus entirely on our own well-being and redirect our energy towards alleviating the pain of others.
Highlighting such comparisons between cultural values can bring joy to the hearts of many people, especially those living in open societies characterised by modern democratic values and a rich cultural heritage founded on respect, peace and unity.
May this serve as a means of alleviating the pain and suffering of countless beings.
Lama G. Tharchin Lharampa Geshe
ROME
