Search results for: "Suffering"

  1. Page 13
  2. Acceptance
     … There is suffering, we are responsible for the suffering that has happened, but we also have the potential not to suffer. That’s another part of conviction, another part of the type of acceptance the Buddha has us develop: not just accepting where we are, but accepting that we bear responsibility for where we are. When we have the responsibility, we have the power … 
  3. The Buddha’s Universal Solvent
     … These truths are expressed just in terms of suffering and the acts of the mind that lead to suffering—in other words, the things that you experience directly inside that nobody else can experience. Each of us has to experience these things on our own: the suffering, the actions inside that lead to suffering, and also the qualities we can develop that can take … 
  4. Not Getting What You Want
    Most of the Buddha’s descriptions of dependent co-arising end with the suffering of aging, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, despair. But there’s one that goes beyond that. “From suffering,” it says, “there’s conviction”—in other words, conviction in the Buddha’s teachings that there is a way out. Then, based on that conviction, you practice until you gain a … 
  5. Cooking Skills
     … He didn’t teach the end of suffering only to people who had exclusively good karma. He said, “Look, if you’re suffering, here’s the way to the end”—regardless of what your past karma is. If you can create good karma in the present moment, you can put an end to suffering. And you can lessen your suffering right now. You have … 
  6. Living Honorably
     … Stress and suffering are the problem, and you’ve got to do something to find a long-term solution. The Buddha’s first recommendations are to comprehend suffering and abandon its cause. So how are you going to figure out a way to sit with the suffering long enough to comprehend it and detect the cause? The cause for the suffering that’s weighing … 
  7. Karma & the Sublime Attitudes
     … You can’t simply say, “Well, they deserve what they got.” After all, some people do have the potential to get out of that suffering. That teaching on equanimity doesn’t say that people suffer because they’ve done something that makes them deserve to suffer, simply that they have some actions in their past that lead to suffering. Yet they may have lots … 
  8. The Sublime Attitudes
     … It’s not an excuse to justify the suffering that people are going through or for our being indifferent to that suffering. When you really understand the workings of karma, you see other people’s suffering as an opportunity to help them. You don’t know how much longer their karma for suffering is going to last. Wouldn’t it be a good thing … 
  9. Large Perspective, Small Focus
     … It’s hard to understand what’s going on and particularly hard to understand what it is that you’re doing that’s contributing to the suffering. You look at the world and there’s a lot of suffering out there, and a lot of things that don’t show any intelligent design or certainly no compassionate design—and you start thinking about it … 
  10. Goodwill for All Beings
     … As he saw, having overcome the problem of suffering in his own heart, he couldn’t just wave a magic wand and have everybody else stop suffering. Suffering is something that each of us creates for him- or herself. Our own lack of skill is what makes us suffer. And because no one can master a skill for anyone else, this is a path … 
  11. Your Breath, Your Territory
     … The problem of suffering is right in here. It’s nowhere else. Other people have their suffering, but you can’t sense their suffering, you don’t have to suffer from it. You can suffer vicariously, but the real suffering is what you experience from within. But he saw that there were common patterns even though everyone’s in his or her own world … 
  12. The Humble Way to Awakening
     … So the Dhamma that explains the cause of suffering and the path to its end is the Buddha’s contribution to end our bewilderment so that our search actually leads to the end of suffering. In the course of following his path, you’ll also find that other issues get settled as well. Suffering is like the watering hole in the savannah. If you … 
  13. You Can’t Relax Your Way to Awakening
     … What it means is that whatever the path to the end of suffering entails, you’re up for it. Whatever the difficulties, you’re ready for them. You’ve seen that otherwise the mind is going to create a lot of suffering for itself. And the sufferings that come from people outside or situations outside are nothing compared to the suffering that the mind … 
  14. What We Have in Common
     … But his analysis of suffering, the causes of suffering, and the end of suffering was not limited to India or the noble warrior caste. It was simply a matter of how the mind, every mind, works. So as we focus on this, it’s what keeps us working together, belonging together. The Buddha talked about how a group can stay together. We look at … 
  15. Not Getting What You Want
    When the Buddha explains the first noble truth, one of the examples he gives is not getting what you want—that’s suffering. Now, the common response to that is, well, just grab what you want and then you won’t suffer. But when the Buddha explains what he means by that statement, you realize it’s not something you can grab. His examples … 
  16. To Discern Suffering
    That phrase in the chant just now, “Those who don’t discern suffering”: It sounds strange. We all detect suffering in our lives. It’s a daily occurrence. Sometimes there’s a lot, sometimes there’s a little. Some people, of course, deny that there’s any suffering in their lives. I knew a journalist in Bangkok one time who asked me, “Why is … 
  17. Developing Absorption
     … The first noble truth, the truth of suffering, is to be comprehended: not just registering the fact that there is suffering, but realizing that clinging to the aggregates is the suffering. That’s not a point that’s easy to comprehend, because it’s all too easy to think that we’re suffering because of things outside. But to see that the actual suffering … 
  18. Head, Heart, & Gut
    As the Buddha says, suffering is caused by three kinds of craving: craving for sensuality, for becoming, and for not becoming. A lot of people jump from that statement to a much bigger generalization: that all desire is bad, which is not the case. The path to the end of suffering also includes desire. It’s part of right effort. Our problem is that … 
  19. Before Your Face Was Born
     … All that’s asked is that you realize you’re suffering, you realize your actions are the important cause for your suffering, and you’re willing to learn. Any attitudes that go beyond that set you up for a fall. This is why right view focuses on the issue of suffering. There’s no question about making you a better person. It’s simply … 
  20. The Power of Present Kamma
     … And as for things done in the past, the Buddha says, you don’t necessarily have to suffer from bad things done in the past. After all, this is a teaching on how to put an end to suffering, and there’s no caveat saying that he’s talking only about undeserved suffering. Even “deserved” suffering is something you don’t have to experience … 
  21. Virtue Contains the Practice
     … You have no recourse when suffering comes up. So the Buddha’s teaching you what to do when you suffer so that you’re no longer bewildered and you don’t have to continue suffering. And in that way, his teaching is a gift. As with any gift, when you receive it, you want to make good use of it. You don’t want … 
  22. Load next page...