The blue sky is objective reality. It may not be like that, but it appears like that to us, and we enjoy it. In Buddhism, we speak about the pure land of the Buddha. The pure land of the Buddha is equivalent to the kingdom of God. Is the pure land of the Buddha an objective reality or a conventional designation? And the Buddha does not mind at all if we call his pure land a conventional designation. Anyway, that is his way to call things.

Buddha is also a conventional designation. And the term human being is also a conventional designation. A flower, a rose is also a conventional designation. When we look at the rose, we see elements coming together to make the rose manifest. And all these elements are all non-rose elements. And you cannot take the rose out of these elements, non-rose elements. You cannot take the rose out of space and time. That is why rose is also a conventional designation.

We also spoke about happiness and suffering. Happiness is a conventional designation. And suffering also. Because when we look into happiness, we see elements that come together and make happiness possible. And in these elements we recognize suffering, pain, sorrow. Because if there is no pain, sorrow and suffering, happiness is not possible. It's like when you grow lotus flowers. If you don't have the mud, you can never grow lotus flowers.

So without the affliction, the suffering, without these elements, you cannot build happiness. We know that happiness is made of understanding and compassion. And those of us who have enough of understanding and compassion, we are light, we are happy.

But understanding and compassion are born from suffering. When you are in touch with the suffering, you begin to understand suffering. And out of the suffering you have compassion and love. And therefore suffering is a very integral part of happiness. Without suffering, no happiness is possible. That is why in the Kingdom of God, there must be suffering. Otherwise, understanding and love would not be possible. You cannot expect to have lotus without mud. I always say that my definition of the Kingdom of God is the place where there is understanding and love.

And of course, if understanding and love are there, suffering must be there too. Because understanding and love are born from suffering. So we should not try to run away from suffering. In fact, we have to look deeply at our suffering, and looking deeply into our own suffering, we find happiness in it. It's like the mud with the lotus.

We all have, every one of us has suffered, more or less. And that is very important for us to experience happiness. If you have not experienced suffering, you have no condition to be happy. It is because you have suffered that is why you are now qualified to be happy. And that is why we should be able to look at suffering differently, to embrace it tenderly. And they are not our enemies.