Search results for: "Suffering"

  1. Page 105
  2. Sitting & Walking
     … It’s in this way that you begin to see how it’s creating unnecessary suffering for itself—which is the whole point. So walking meditation is good for sitting meditation. If nothing else gets your juices stirring. It gets the body moving again so that you don’t suffer the effects of long periods of immobility. It also gives the mind a different … 
  3. It’s All in What You’re Doing
     … But they learned how to train their minds not just to bear with the pain, but to be with the pain and not suffer from it. Their example shows it can be done. There’s a case in the Canon where a monk is out in the wilderness. It’s a big grassy wilderness, not the beautiful forest wilderness we like to think about … 
  4. On Human Nature
     … If you can uproot your greed, other people around you won’t have to suffer from your greed. If you can uproot your aversion and delusion, nobody has to suffer from your aversion and delusion. That right there is a huge gift. It’s in this way that your desire for happiness can be turned into something that’s wise, pure, and compassionate. As … 
  5. Two Kinds of Cross-Questioning
     … We use the general principles as working hypotheses so that we can get into this issue of why the mind is creating suffering and how it can stop. As we’re working with the breath here, we’re developing qualities of mind that make it easier and easier to see what’s actually going on. The mindfulness part—the part that keeps things in … 
  6. From Anxiety to Confidence
     … What he discovered about human action does give us hope that it is possible through what you do and say and think, if you do it with knowledge, to put an end to suffering. And the path to the end of suffering is a good path. It’s a path that leads to light. Based on that conviction, you have a sense of shame … 
  7. Learning by Doing
     … Sometimes we’re told that the desire for things to be different is the cause of suffering, so we should just accept things as they are. But that’s ignoring the fact that “as they are” already involves some manipulation on our part. It may be very subconscious, but it’s there. After all, what do we have here in the present moment? We … 
  8. The Right Time at the Right Place
     … Just think about the Buddha’s analysis of suffering: It’s from the things we crave and cling to. In other words, we suffer because of the things we like, that we feel that we can’t let go of. That’s because we’re ignorant about what we’re doing, and that ignorance is something we don’t want to look at. We … 
  9. Bodies & Minds Outside
     … You realize that if your happiness depends on other people’s suffering, they’re not going to stand for it. You can’t say, “Excuse me, this is my happiness, and so you’ll just have to let me continue enjoying it because it’s so special.” They’ll say, “This is my suffering. It’s special, too. I don’t want it.” This … 
  10. Delight in Persistence
     … If you bring knowledge to these things, they turn from causes of suffering to the path to the end of suffering—and you bring knowledge to them as you use them to get the mind in concentration. So there’s a joy in seeing yourself being freed from things that you were afraid of before and being brave enough to face things that you … 
  11. To Know the Unconditioned
     … a consciousness without fabrications, a consciousness without suffering, without limits. That’s the unconditioned. To find that, you have to understand what you’re doing to fabricate things. We think that sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas come in at us willy-nilly while we’re passively receiving them. But the Buddha’s basically saying that we go out looking for these … 
  12. Basic Intro
     … So we train the mind to bring it more under control so that it doesn’t create unnecessary suffering for itself. And as we train the mind with the breath like this, we’re developing good qualities to help with that sense of control: Mindfulness, keeping something in mind—in this case, you keep the breath in mind. Alertness, watching what’s actually going … 
  13. Control from Within
     … If we don’t train the mind, we’re going to suffer. If we do train the mind, we have the opportunity not to suffer. That’s our big choice in life. The Buddha once said the point that distinguishes a wise person from the fool is that the wise person sees the necessity of training the mind, whereas the fool doesn’t. That … 
  14. Prevention
     … If you know that your lust has harmed other people in the past and could probably harm other people again, remind yourself, “Okay, this is for their good as well as for mine.” And that you’ve all suffered enough. That’s one of the questions the Thai ajaans keep asking, “Have you had enough suffering?” And your mouth may say, “Plenty enough,” but … 
  15. To Be Sure
     … It’s not the case that you’re the only one who will suffer if the mind changes direction. Other people will suffer, too. But if you can straighten out your own mind, other people will benefit. So this is not a selfish practice. It focuses on what you’re doing, it focuses on your happiness, but with a realization that there’s a … 
  16. Discernment All Along
     … that your well-being and your suffering come from how you do things. In other words, you’re not sitting here perfectly passive, waiting for pains to come or pleasures to come, or hoping for pleasures and fearing the pains. We’re active. We go out looking for things. And when you can be sensitive to the fact that you’re out there looking … 
  17. Strategies for Generosity
     … Even more so when you can take this sensitivity that you develop inside and look deeper into what are the subtler ways that you’re causing unnecessary stress and suffering for yourself in the way you manage the mind. One of the roles of concentration is that it gets things really, really quiet and really, really still. You become more and more sensitive. It … 
  18. Bad Friends Inside
     … A lot of the things we do create unhappiness, create suffering and pain. This is one of the big paradoxes in life. And, as I said, it’s because we’re not paying much attention to what we’re doing. If you think of the mind as a committee, there are lots of different voices in there, lots of different persons almost. And a … 
  19. Training Wheels
     … You’ve got the aggregates, which are neutral, but then they become part of suffering when they become clinging-aggregates. You’ve got the sense media, which are neutral, too, but they become the topic for suffering when you start developing fetters around what you see and hear and smell and taste; or simply fetters around the fact that you like having these senses … 
  20. No Happiness Other than Peace
     … But he speaks in ways that are designed to give rise to the sense of dispassion that comes with comprehension, i.e., you see that this really is a lot of suffering. Going through this process of samsara-ing is pretty miserable. You’ve probably heard the comparison of all the water in the oceans as being less than the tears you’ve shed … 
  21. Defeatism? - Anything But
     … After all, we are doing this for the sake of putting an end to suffering. There’s one passage about a monk who’s beginning to get discouraged in his practice and is thinking of giving up. And the Buddha says, “You should ask yourself, Don’t you love yourself? Didn’t you start this practice for putting an end to suffering? If you … 
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