Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. The Need for Stillness
     … The cause of suffering, he says, is sending the mind out, sending your attention, sending your awareness outside, and suffering is what results from that. The path, he says, is having the mind watch the mind, having the mind see the mind. The end of suffering is what results from that. So it’s the movement that makes us suffer, and just having the … 
  3. The Origination of Suffering
    The basic lesson of the second noble truth is that the origination of suffering comes from within. In fact, that’s what the Pali term that we translate as origination—samudaya—tends to mean: causes coming from within the mind itself. We tend to forget that. We think we suffer because of people outside, situations outside, and a lot of people are very painful … 
  4. Appropriate Attention Always
     … What does comprehension mean? It doesn’t mean you’re simply notice, “Oh yes, there is suffering,” or “This is what suffering is like.” You understand that suffering lies in the clinging to the aggregates. And why do you cling to the aggregates? Because you find pleasure in them. Some people will say that it’s because you think they have some abiding essence … 
  5. Three Parts of Right View
     … It is possible to end this illness by attacking the causes, and here’s the way you do it.” Notice in that first truth where he talks about suffering, he’s not saying, “Life is suffering.” You hear it again and again and again, but that’s not what the Buddha’s saying. Simply, there is suffering—that’s something we can clearly see … 
  6. Be Observant
     … One is to pretend that there isn’t any suffering and to try to view the world in a way that the suffering goes away or doesn’t matter. The other way is to look squarely at the suffering to see why it’s there. When you see why it’s there, then you can let go of the cause. When you let go … 
  7. Noble & True
     … Seeing craving not as a friend but as a cause of suffering – something to be abandoned – that, too, is a noble act. Seeing the act of clinging to the aggregates not as a source of happiness or a source of who you really want to be, but as suffering, something to be comprehended so that you can abandon its cause: That’s a noble … 
  8. Truths of the Will
    As the Buddha said in his first sermon, the path to the end of suffering is something you have to develop. In other words, it doesn’t just happen on its own; you have to work at making it grow. So when you’re sitting here, trying to get the mind concentrated, that’s what you’re doing: There is an effort that has … 
  9. Wisdom Requires Integrity
     … To stop that suffering, we want to notice precisely which actions are the ones that cause the suffering, which ones can help lead away from suffering. That’s where the discernment comes in. Sometimes you hear that Buddhist wisdom is all about emptiness or non-duality. But you have to ask yourself: Are you suffering because you think things are dual? Are you suffering … 
  10. From Darkness to Light
     … You have to learn how to take that framework—“Where is the suffering right now? What’s causing the suffering? What actions are causing the suffering, and what actions can be done to abandon that cause?”—and try to keep that in mind as much as you can. This is why we have a monastery like this, so that you can practice dealing with … 
  11. A Touchstone at the Breath
     … You can pay attention in a way that causes suffering, or you can pay attention in a way that helps alleviate suffering. So you want to know what kind of attention helps alleviate suffering. With just that much understanding, you can listen to the Buddha’s teachings. He would often begin his talks by saying, “Listen and pay careful attention.” He didn’t mean … 
  12. Clinging to Karmic Diarrhea
     … We’re here to comprehend suffering. That’s one of the duties we have with regard to the four noble truths—and, as the Buddha said, to comprehend means to develop a sense of dispassion. You might think, “Why would we be passionate for suffering?” The problem is that there’s a side to suffering we like. In other words, the things that we … 
  13. Happily on the Path
     … We read the truths and they seem to be all about suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering. But they’re not just suffering. They also include trying to find the cause of suffering, realizing that it’s possible for suffering to end, and that there’s a path of practice to put suffering to an end by abandoning the cause. These are things you can do … 
  14. Fighting off Ignorance
     … But strength of mind is a lot more important than strength of body, because it comes down to this old issue of suffering. The Buddha gave 45 years of his life to teaching the issue of suffering and the end of suffering, for he saw that as the most important problem in life. We all want happiness but we cause ourselves suffering because our … 
  15. Goodwill All Around
     … For true happiness you need a well trained mind, a mind that’s not afraid to comprehend suffering, let go of its cause, develop the factors of the path, so it can realize the end of suffering. Otherwise even though we all desire happiness, we just keep creating more and more suffering, which is the big irony of life. But it’s possible to … 
  16. Cook Your Mind
     … With the first noble truth, the truth of suffering, the duty is to comprehend it. With the second noble truth, the truth of the origination of suffering, the duty is to abandon it. With the third noble truth, the cessation of suffering, the duty is to realize it. With the fourth noble truth, the path to the cessation of suffering, the duty is to … 
  17. sBeyond Acceptance
     … suffering and the end of suffering.” Some people say, “If suffering and the end of suffering are one thing, then that means that if you accept the suffering, then it’s not suffering anymore.” But the Buddha never said “one thing.” He just said, “All I teach s suffering and the end of suffering.” Those are two different things. The suffering is to be … 
  18. Be Bigger Than Your Pains
     … They have their sufferings as well. They want happiness as well. So in one sense, we’re all in this together, and you have to think about how your sufferings fit in with the rest of the sufferings of the world. To what extent are you actually causing other people to suffer? Also, remember that there are a lot of people out there who … 
  19. Cooking with Kamma
     … When unpleasant things come, you can ask yourself, “Why am I suffering from this?” All too often, when there’s a pain or something you dislike, the natural reaction is to suffer. But, as the Buddha’s pointing out in the four noble truths, the suffering’s not necessary. There’s the suffering in the three characteristics, which is in the way that things … 
  20. Respect Opens Possibilities
     … One was that unskillful behavior should be abandoned—“unskillful” meaning leading to harm and suffering—whereas skillful behavior should be developed, to lead away from suffering. The other categorical teaching is the four noble truths, focused first on what is your suffering, after all. The Buddha identifies it as clinging to the aggregates. The aggregates are activities we indulge in. We chanted about them … 
  21. The Duties of Happiness
     … These are the things that accompany your suffering, and these are the things that cause it. We engage in these things out of ignorance. But if you can comprehend the suffering, you begin to see, at the same time, that there is this companion to suffering: the cause. And if you abandon the companion, the suffering goes away. So this gives you encouragement that … 
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