Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. A Passion for the Path
    Sometimes the question comes up that when the Buddha listed the four noble truths why did he list the cessation of suffering before the path to the cessation of suffering? The answer is in the third noble truth. He’s not simply stating the fact that there’s a cessation. He’s also stating a principle. The cessation comes when you develop dispassion for … 
  13. The Right Place to Look
     … Sometimes we hear that the Buddha wanted to put a stop to all suffering, regardless of whether it was caused by things inside or outside. But as he said, the real cause for the suffering is your own craving and ignorance. That’s not outside. It’s inside. So if you want to put an end to suffering in the world, you have to … 
  14. Faith in Goodness
     … You see people who are suffering, or who are creating the causes for suffering, and you don’t just leave them and say, “Well, they deserve to suffer.” You have compassion: May they find some way of ending their suffering. If there’s anything that you can do to help, you’re happy to help. With empathetic joy, people are happy or creating the … 
  15. Responsible for Your Goodness
     … You try to get your head around suffering so you can comprehend it to the point where you can develop dispassion for the things that make you cling to it. As for the cause of suffering, you try to get your head around it enough to abandon it. But the end of suffering, the cessation of suffering, is not something to comprehend. You discover … 
  16. The Fangs of Conceit
     … We’re here because we’re suffering. There’s stress in the mind. There’s suffering in the mind, and we’re causing it to ourselves. That’s the big irony. There’s enough stress and suffering in the world without our additional piling it on. And everything we do should be for the sake of happiness. You’d think that’s why we … 
  17. Stick to Your Duties
     … Your business is the fact that you’re suffering and you need to attack the suffering at the cause, and not just try to let go of suffering. Trying to let go of suffering is like going to a house, seeing that there’s smoke filling the house, and you try to put out the smoke. As long as the fire is burning, the … 
  18. The Reality Principle
     … How do we not suffer in the face of that? Those are the real issues. This where the teaching on equanimity is important. It’s the brahmavihara that helps prevent the other brahmaviharas from causing us to suffer. We want all living beings to be happy. We see that some are suffering and we want to help them. Sometimes we can, but often we … 
  19. Endurance Made Easier
    Endurance Made Easier January 27, 2009 We’re practicing to put an end to stress, suffering, and pain. But the practice itself involves stress, suffering, and pain. As the Buddha said, there are times when you realize that certain unskillful qualities in your mind are not going away as you live at your ease. So you have to be willing to put up with … 
  20. Desire for Happiness
     … You slip up and you’re going to suffer. And then we chant, “May I be happy.” That contrast right there says a lot about life. We live in a world where there’s a lot of suffering. In addition to the basic suffering that comes from having a body, there are also all the horrible things that people do to one another: killing … 
  21. Bare Attention
     … You have to be responsible to see what works and what doesn’t work in putting an end to the causes of suffering: When is it better to be quiet; when is it better to be more proactive? The four noble truths provide the framework for that, looking to see—when there’s suffering—what’s causing the suffering and then attacking the problem … 
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