Search results for: "Suffering"
- Page 122
- Recollecting the Devas… That way you can focus on the causes of suffering so you can put an end to the suffering. But again you have to look in your own mind to learn these things. You can’t depend on the devas to teach you. The Canon contains some interesting stories about interactions between monks and devas. One is about a female deva who sees a …
- Noble Treasures… When you read the instructions he gives of how to work with the breath energies, you notice that it’s very clearly based on what a person who is suffering heart problems will need. You start with the breath coming in through the back of the neck, going down through the spine, because the back of the neck is where there’s a lot …
- Sensitivity Through Generosity… If you miss one of the dimensions, the others are going to suffer. We see other people who are just generous and don’t meditate, and we see what’s lacking there. Well, the same problem is there with people who just meditate and don’t really understand generosity. For the practice to be successful, it has to be complete. It’s an all …
- Fear of Death… The way you label the pain is what creates a bridge into the mind, over which suffering comes. You can learn how to cut the bridge, so that even though the pain may still be there in the body, it’s not affecting the mind. As you learn how to use this approach with minor pains, you can start dealing with larger pains as …
- Introduction: Meditation as a Skill… And it’s no wonder that we suffer. We don’t give any attention to the artistry or the skills we need to bring to the way we react to sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas. Some of our experience comes from outside, from the past, but a lot of it depends on how we shape it. That’s what really determines …
- Lessons in Fabrication… As he said, whatever craving leads to becoming is going to lead to suffering. You can trace it back all the way to a process that the Buddha calls fabrication. Saṅkhāra is the Pali term. These are the things we do to put together our experience of the present moment. We have raw material coming in from the past—the things we did, said …
- Timeless… how we can experience aging, illness, and death, and not suffer from it—and not do anything unskillful around it. That’s the kind of knowledge that will keep us safe.
- Wilderness Lessons… The mountain suffered a fire recently, so look at the ravages of the fire as you go there. You’ll notice that some plants are already beginning to sprout. Parts of the mountain are beginning to look green again. But other parts—huge parts—of the mountain are still black. There’s a lesson in kamma right there. Some of your actions are things …
- Sensitive to the Breath… Another time he talked about how when he was young, he tended to suffer pretty heavily from headaches. He found that if he could emphasize the breath going down the spine and think of it going from the base of the spine out into the ground, that helped to relieve the pressure in the head. He had lots of little tricks like this. But …
- Delight in the Breath… Why is there pain? Why is there suffering? And is there a way to put an end to it? The Buddha explains why there’s pain, and he also explains that, Yes, it is possible to put an end it. Human beings can do this. That’s why we’re here. A major part of the path is right concentration. It’s ironic: In …
- Taking the Long View… But from the long view, those are the ones who are going to suffer the most. So use the power you have right now to make wise choices—because it is within your power to really make a difference, a difference that will last for the long term.
- Nurturing Patient Endurance… No matter what the defilement, no matter what the problem in terms of physical pain or mental pain, there’s a way around it so that you can learn how to live with the difficulties that are inherent in having a body, living in the human realm, but not suffer from them. Look for that distinction. The reason we find some things hard to …
- Undividing the Mind… You could take all the care in the world and you’d still suffer from the dangers. But here you can make a difference. You’ve got the opportunity right now, and you’ve tried everything else. Think back over the many lifetimes that you’ve devoted to all kinds of other things. Here’s an opportunity to focus directly on the mind, to …
- Victory in Battle… There’s a Pali term, attha, which means “goal,” “purpose,” and “benefit.” It also means “meaning.” The Buddha taught his teachings with a purpose, so people that will take them and put an end to suffering. The question is, are we going to make that our purpose too? Because we all have purposes. When the Buddha talks about how we fabricate the present moment …
- Potentials… He established the religion, established the Dhamma and the Vinaya to make it available to people so that they, too, could put an end to suffering. So as you sit here and meditate, ask yourself: What are the potentials here? There’ll be some bad ones, but there will also be some good ones. Why stew around in the bad ones? Why encourage them …
- All Your Old Baggage… Even though the baggage isn’t totally let down or totally put down until you attain the total end of suffering, still it’s good to learn how to practice putting things down temporarily when you catch yourself carrying baggage around. At the very least, try to keep the baggage as light as possible. As when you’re sitting here right now:There’s …
- Finding Your Own Balance… There’s no way you’re going to come to the end of suffering if you do things blindly. So experiment. Watch and then test the way you read the experiment, to see if you really can trust it. Over time, your ability to read things will get better and better. Your sense of balance will get better and better. That’s why it …
- Still… He didn’t say that the path was the goal, but he did say that the activity of developing the path and the activity of realizing the cessation of suffering are the same thing. In other words, you don’t have to second guess the path. You don’t have to look down the path and ask, “When’s the next stage going to …
- Producing Experience… The story’s full of all kinds of suffering: A young woman gets sold as a slave to get her parents out of debt; her new master is a good person, but he dies off pretty quickly; he’s got an evil brother, and all kinds of horrible things happen; there are floods, fires, suicides, lots of injustice — what makes for a great story …
- To Comprehend Food… We’re feeding off of a lot of people and other beings’ suffering. So what’re you going to do with that food, what are you going to do with the energy you get from the food? When you think about eating a lot of food, a really good, big meal, you can think about it as putting yourself in debt—more than you …
- Load next page...
