Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Staying on Track
    The causes of suffering are of two kinds: those that go away when you look at them steadily, and those that don’t. It’s because of the first kind that some people think that that’s the solution to every problem appearing in the mind. Just look at it steadily, be with it, and it’ll dissolve away on its own. The problem … 
  3. Timeless Dhamma
     … In this way, you see how, for instance, how craving can cause suffering. And you notice that the things you crave are really not worth the craving. No matter how much you try to create happiness out of these inconstant, stressful, not-self aspects of your life, it’s bound to fall apart. It’s like building a house out of frozen ice cream … 
  4. Practical Wisdom
     … Because if the practice were simply a matter of trading suffering for happiness, we’d all go for it. But there are many aspects of the practice that are difficult and require that you give up things that are going to give you pleasure in the short term. So what do you do? You learn how to talk to yourself. You try to figure … 
  5. Observe Yourself in Action
     … He said all the cravings that lead to suffering are those that lead to becoming, and that includes not only craving for sensuality and craving for becoming, but also craving for non-becoming, too. In that case, you have a state of becoming and you want to see it destroyed. But then a sense of you can gather around that desire for it to … 
  6. Overconfidence & Underconfidence
     … This is why the Buddha, when he was talking to the monks gathered around at his passing away, stressed heedfulness as his final message. “Attain completion,” he said, “through heedfulness.” Heedfulness is the root of all skillful qualities, realizing that your actions are important, that they can make the difference between happiness and suffering, between having something to hold on to when aging, illness … 
  7. Get Attached to Jhana
     … He said that the two duties with regard to the cessation of suffering and with regard to the path—in other words, realizing the cessation and developing the path—are one. This is a good strategic way of thinking. In other words, in the act of developing the path, you’re going to realize the cessation of suffering, so you don’t have to … 
  8. Things that Arise & Pass Away
     … the realization that if your happiness is built on somebody else’s suffering, it’s not going to last. They’re going to do what they can to put an end to it. And if they can’t do it, their friends will, their relatives will, or their descendants will. If you want a solid happiness, you’ve got to keep other people’s … 
  9. Exploring Fabrication
     … You think about all the suffering you’ve had in the past and caused in the past, and all the suffering you’re going to cause in the future if you don’t get on the path. That’s a really good motivator. So this is how we learn about things. This is how we gain insight into them, by working and playing with … 
  10. Persistence
     … If you run into any stress or suffering, you want to comprehend it. If you can see what’s giving rise to that stress, you want to let that go. As for the factors of the path—everything from right view through right concentration—those are things that you’re trying to give rise to if they’re not there, and to maintain and … 
  11. Detail Work
     … Is there anybody out there that you really would have ill will for? Why would you benefit from seeing them suffer? Sometimes you say, “Well, I’d like to see justice done.” Don’t worry about that—kamma takes care of that. *Your *duty is to figure out, “If I ever encountered that person, how could I actually behave in a way that would … 
  12. Shoot Your Pains with Wisdom
     … Whatever arrows you’ve got, you shoot yourself with them all, and no wonder you suffer. The wise person, however, doesn’t fire those extra arrows at all. What this means is that when you find yourself suffering over something, you’ve got to look at which arrows are coming from outside and which ones are the ones you’re shooting. This comes down … 
  13. Resisting the Germs of Defilement
     … And only when you realize that you’re suffering from them—and sometimes in a big way—do you realize something’s wrong. But you don’t even know where it came from. So we practice meditation to develop our resistance. The concentration side is to develop the strength of resistance so that we have a strong sense of well-being inside. This is … 
  14. Healing Skills
     … As for other illnesses, even though working with the breath may not may them go away, at least you find yourself suffering a lot less from the illness, suffering a lot less from the pain, because you learn how to manage the pain from within. Wherever there’s a sense of blockage around a particular pain, you can breathe through it, so that the … 
  15. Momentum Through Restraint
     … If we use it in ignorance, it’s going to lead to suffering. But if we’re clear about our intentions, we can use our powers of intention to create a path inside—a path in our actions, our words, our deeds, our thoughts, that can lead to the end of suffering. So in the case of restraint, it’s not just a matter … 
  16. A Mirror for the Mind
     … In particular, it’ll show us how to find happiness by understanding where we cause suffering, because all the suffering that weighs the mind down comes out of the mind. But because it’s so difficult to look directly at the mind, we have to look in a mirror. It’s like trying to look directly at our own face. If you cross your … 
  17. Right Speech, Inside & Out
     … Right view focuses you on the issue of suffering and what can be done to put an end to suffering. Right resolve deals with the ways that you make up your mind that you’re going to follow the path: You’ll try to put aside your sensual obsessions, put aside ill will, put aside thoughts of harmfulness. Then you’ve got to focus … 
  18. The Good Side of Kamma
     … The reason the larger cycles are so full of suffering is because our actions are unskillful, and our actions are so unskillful because we’re not paying attention to what we’re doing right here, right now. So this is why we meditate, to pay more attention, to be clear about what’s happening and in particular about what we’re doing. As you … 
  19. Practicing Meditation to Perform at Death
     … Reflect on the fact that even devas suffer from self-identity, identifying with the aggregates one way or another, either identifying with the aggregates themselves or feeling that they are someone who possesses these aggregates, wants to use them as tools, or they’re in the aggregates, or the aggregates are in them. Even a state of infinite consciousness: You can develop a sense … 
  20. Inner Civil War
     … As Ajaan Lee points out, there’s the suffering that comes from just having a body, and that’s natural. But the suffering that comes from defilements is not natural and it’s not necessary. It’s simply a bad habit you’ve picked up. This is one of the reasons why we work with the precepts. They give us some clear lines that … 
  21. Stress
     … For example, the three perceptions are teachings on discernment, so they fall in the context of the questions that lie at the basis of discernment: “What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? What when I do it will lead to my long-term harm and suffering? What’s skillful? What’s unskillful? What’s blameless? What’s … 
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