Q: Dear Todd, “All suffering exists in the mind” leaves out the heart and the intuition part. Any thoughts?

TODD ANSWERS: The heart and the gut (intuition) are essential to empathy and healthy emotions. From my experience, suffering most often starts in the mind and then our heart begins to ache. Emotions are where we feel our thoughts. Occasionally, like as in physical pain, our brain receives the pain signals and then our mind reacts unconsciously, and then our emotions may become fearful or agitated. But even in this case, they start in the mind.

However you are absolutely correct, our mental aversion to unpleasant circumstances can affect our hearts and obscure our intuition. We must listen to our heart and intuition as much, if not more so, than our mind.