suffering, enlightenment and pizza

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A Zen Buddhist saying has it that, "the greater the suffering, the greater the enlightenment."

I doubt if I'm alone in thinking that I have a pretty good handle "suffering." That's the bad stuff and there is chapter-and-verse evidence I can point to. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

But what I know of "enlightenment" is pretty thin, outside imagining it's the good stuff and listening to others describe it one way or another. Nevertheless, despite my thin-tea evidence, I seldom stop to consider how little I know of an expression that can trip off my tongue as easily as falling out of bed.

The greater the bad stuff, the greater the good stuff... that's pretty much my juvenile translation.

Yet with practice, juveniles seem to grow up and good and bad have a way of folding into each other like pizza dough.

Is there anything that beats a good pizza?
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