Quotation
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“If a problem can be remedied, why be unhappy about it? If it cannot be remedied, what use is being unhappy about it?”
Śāntideva · Mahāyāna Buddhism · Medieval · c. 8th century
What does it mean?
Unhappiness is not recommended as a tool. If the trouble can be fixed, the verse says, fix it, and if it cannot, misery does not repair it. A rival reading flattens this into the later proverb that worry is always useless, which drops the first limb, the demand to act when a remedy exists. The lines belong to the patience chapter, where anger and dejection are treated as obstacles on the bodhisattva path, not as proof that feeling itself is a mistake.
Did Śāntideva really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Verse 6.10 of the Bodhicaryavatara, in the patience chapter. The English follows the common sense of the Padmakara translation. It is not the later proverb that floats free of the source. The wording is a translation.
Where it comes from
Bodhicaryāvatāra 6.10
Approximate date: c. 8th century.
How to use it
A council-tax bill in Sheffield arrives with a deadline and a phone number, while a second worry arrives with neither: news about health that will not be argued away this week. Sort the first into a next action, the call or the payment plan, and notice that the second has no lever. The verse refuses a third state, which is rehearsing either worry without that distinction.
A mindset reading
This is an argument about what sorrow can accomplish, not an order to feel nothing, and patience in the chapter is trained under injury rather than borrowed as a mood of blankness. The flattened proverb people repeat, about never worrying, erases the half of the verse that still sends a person toward the remedy. Both halves are the point.
Understand the philosophy
Chapter six treats anger as a serious obstacle on the bodhisattva path. The key term is patience, kshanti, which is not passivity but a trained refusal of useless rage and dejection. The verse is one move in that training: sorrow claims to help and often does not, while a real remedy still obliges action. The common English follows the sense of the Padmakara translation, and it is not the free-floating worry proverb.
- mind
- resilience
FAQ
What does it mean?
Unhappiness is not recommended as a tool. If the trouble can be fixed, the verse says, fix it, and if it cannot, misery does not repair it. A rival reading flattens this into the later proverb that worry is always useless, which drops the first limb, the demand to act when a remedy exists. The lines belong to the patience chapter, where anger and dejection are treated as obstacles on the bodhisattva path, not as proof that feeling itself is a mistake.
Did Śāntideva really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Verse 6.10 of the Bodhicaryavatara, in the patience chapter. The English follows the common sense of the Padmakara translation. It is not the later proverb that floats free of the source. The wording is a translation.
Which work is it in?
Bodhicaryāvatāra 6.10 Approximate date: c. 8th century.