Search results for: "Suffering"
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- Intelligent Respect… The thing is, their habits are not very well thought out, or they don’t lead to the end of suffering. And same with their practices. Here, we try to make use of habits and practices that are conducive to release. We realize that they’re not going to do all the work, but they’re an important part of the work. After all …
- Nobility Through Inner Strength… You want to do things well, because you realize that if you act in unskillful ways, you’re going to suffer, and the people around you are going to suffer, too. It’s not worth it. When unskillful thoughts come up in the mind, you know you don’t want them to get out into your words or deeds, so you try to stop …
- Responsible… There were times when he was lying in bed suffering, and his courtiers and his relatives were standing round thinking, “Maybe he’ll die this time, maybe he’ll die this time.” Ratthapala asks him, “Can you command them to take part of that pain, share that pain, so that you don’t have to feel the pain all alone and you can feel …
- Determination… And if you want your goal to last, you have to make sure that you don’t attain it based on other people’s suffering. You have to keep their well-being in mind. So you have to have goodwill for them, too—in fact, goodwill for everybody, so that your happiness will face danger from no one. The second quality: truth. Once you …
- In Search of What’s Skillful… What are you doing right now that’s causing suffering? And what can you do to put an end to suffering? He gained insight into the four noble truths, and then he also gained a similar kind of insight into what’s called the asavas, the mental fermentations: the defilements that bubble up into the mind. There’s sensuality, there are views, and then …
- Intelligence of the Heart… what’s worth doing, what’s not worth doing. “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?” That’s a value judgment. You want welfare and happiness. You want it long-term. And you realize that it comes from your actions. So you want …
- Examine Your Happiness… He wants you to look at the direct experience of stress and suffering in your internal sense of your mind. Your understanding of all these terms is going to develop and grow more refined as you practice, as you look at them more carefully. So it’s good to stop and think: What does happiness mean to you? How do you go about it …
- Goodwill & Heedfulness… They say you should start with yourself, telling yourself: “May I be happy and free from suffering. May I look after myself with ease.” Then you spread that thought to people who are close to your heart. Then gradually work outwards in ever widening circles: to benefactors, good friends, people you’re more neutral about, and people who are actually your adversaries, until you …
- The Skills of Truth & Calm… But as long as you’ve created one of those, there’s going to be suffering. If you try to destroy what you’ve created, there will be suffering, too. The trick is to catch the process before it’s turned into a state of becoming. That’s what we’re doing as we meditate. If you look at dependent co-arising, even before …
- Bases of Success… that there’s so much suffering out there that we can’t do anything about. And, of course, there are actions from the past, our own actions from the past, that we can’t do anything about as well. So these contemplations are meant to give rise to a sense of desire, to motivate us to want to practice, to be willing to give …
- Anxiety… And as long as you lay claim to things that they can do bad things to, you’re going to suffer. But you don’t have to lay claim. Even your name, it’s not really yours. You didn’t come into this world with that name. It was given to you. It’s a property of the world. And the world can say …
- Smoothing It… He said that if that were the case, there would be no path to the end of suffering. It’s because we do have this ability to shape the present moment with our intentional actions that we can make changes, and those changes can lead all the way to the end of suffering. That’s a good Dhamma to believe in, a good Dhamma …
- Mindfulness of Death… Or they may decide that life is so much suffering they’d rather be just snuffed out. Well, that takes you to another state of being as well. Then all the hindrances can come in at that time: There can be doubt. There can be restlessness and anxiety. There can be drowsiness. Ill will can come up as you remember people who have wronged …
- Why Train the Mind… The whole reason why the mind creates pain for itself, creates suffering for itself, is because it’s not paying attention to what it’s doing right here and now. You want to get clearer and clearer about what you’re actually doing here in the present moment. For that, the first thing, of course, is to get focused here. Just be careful not …
- Guardian Meditations… Ananda later explained to the person who asked the question, the Buddha’s main concern was that if people are going to find happiness—and it’s their choice—if they want to put an end to suffering, this is how it has to be done. But because people have free will, there’s no telling what the choices made in the future will …
- Befriending the Breath… And it causes itself unnecessary suffering, even when it thinks it’s having a good time. So you’ve got to learn to be a bit dubious about some of these other friends you’ve been hanging out with, the old movies that come running up in your head. If you find yourself getting sucked into the movie, remind yourself, where there’s a …
- The Goldsmith… We’re here to be aware of what we’re doing that’s causing suffering and how we can stop it. That requires putting the gold into the fire sometimes. So, be ready with your full range of skills and learn what’s the right time and the right place for them, realizing that equanimity is one of those skills, but not the only …
- Circumspection… He saw that you can’t attack the problem of suffering straight on. You attack it through its causes: That’s strategic thinking. Sometimes even his way of attacking the causes is a little indirect. The cause, he says, is craving. So what does he have you do? He doesn’t have you look at craving right off the bat. He has you look …
- Inconstant, Stressful, Not-self… Is this something that’s going to be long-term? Is it going to help lead to the end of suffering, or is it going to lead to more suffering? Is this part of the path or is it something that leads away from the path? Part of the Buddha’s strategy is that you do have to use things that are inconstant and …
- Can Do… He used the Thai term kraikruan, which means “to contemplate.” Kraikruan includes the word krai, which means “you do this because you want it.” So ask yourself, “Do you really want to put an end to suffering?” If you say, “Yes, that’s what I want,” you have it within you to do that. The Buddha’s basically telling you, “Don’t let anybody …
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