Suffering Is Optional: Three Keys to Freedom and Joy centers around three basic aspects of Zen practice: pay attention, believe nothing, and don't take anything personally. As ending suffering requires that one sees how suffering happens, the book urges readers to be willing to be quiet and pay attention to the process of suffering in effort to see each moment as an opportunity to step beyond illusion into freedom. It also argues that examining beliefs, abandoning them, and returning attention to the present is essential to ending suffering, as is living in the awareness that nothing in the universe is personal.

This book provides a process for dealing with the dull pain of depression. It employs a custom hand-lettered font and many lighthearted illustrations. A self-guided retreat has been added to assist readers to explore how to be compassionate with themselves when depressed.