Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Identifying Weeds
     … the preference to develop states of mind that really do give a greater sense of ease, a greater sense of well-being in the present moment, and lead on to things that are even greater, ultimately to the end of suffering. Those are the plants you want to foster. Anything that gets in the way is a weed. Do your best uproot the weeds … 
  3. Right View about Right View
     … to develop dispassion for suffering, to abandon its cause, to realize its cessation, and to develop the path. In other words, they’re meant to serve a purpose. And because they don’t qualify as categorical, that means that they’re useful only for certain times and situations. It’s important to keep that point in mind. The forest ajaans bring this point out … 
  4. The Kindness of Body Contemplation
     … It’s also meant to overcome any kind of attachment to the body, realizing that this attachment can cause all kinds of problems, all kinds of suffering. I read recently about a lay teacher who decided that this was a bad kind of contemplation, meant to make women feel inferior, and so she had decided to substitute it with another one, having goodwill for … 
  5. Goodwill for the Whole Committee
     … Other identities that you’ve taken on yourself, that you’ve cobbled together from other people’s examples, are things you had to think up on the spur of the moment when you were suffering. Each of these identities is based on a desire, on a certain idea about the happiness you want, and a certain strategy for how you’re going to go … 
  6. Right Now
     … And when that sensitivity is fully developed, it can take you all the way to the end of suffering. So what you’re doing right now is very important.
  7. The Lightness of the Concentrated Mind
     … And because that stuff is done in ignorance—that’s why it leads to suffering. So when you sit down to meditate, as the Buddha said, first your thoughts of sensuality fall away. Your thoughts of unskillful qualities fall away. Then your directed thought and evaluation falls away. Then the movement of the breath falls away. These different layers of sankhara, fabrication, fall away … 
  8. Meditator, Mediator
     … So it’s through the path that you find the end of suffering. The qualities of mind that you need in developing that skill are the ones that eventually will reach the point where they really can’t see it through on their own. The only way they can see through is by sharpening them through the practice. So you don’t just do … 
  9. The Four Biases
     … We suffer because there is this element of dishonesty in our minds, and the reason the dishonesty stays there is because, as I said, this fear, this lack of security. Once you have a sense of security inside you, then the dishonesty has no basis. There’s no reason for the mind to hide things from itself, because there’s nothing that it’s … 
  10. A Complete Training
     … And we’re fortunate that we have the Buddha’s teachings on the four noble truths to remind us that when you let go, it can bring the end of suffering. That way, you’re more willing to let go. This is why the Buddha has you contemplate not only things outside—things that would have pulled you away from your concentration—in terms … 
  11. In the Land of Wrong View
     … And finally, you want friends who are wise and discerning in terms of seeing what really does cause suffering and what doesn’t, what leads to true happiness and what doesn’t. So those are the four qualities: conviction, generosity, virtue, and discernment. These are the people you want in your inner circle of friends, the ones you go to for advice, the ones … 
  12. A True Man of No Rank
     … Stress and suffering should be comprehended to the point of dispassion. But what is stress? It’s our clinging. The things we hold on to dearly. Not just things, but also attitudes, beliefs. We have to look at them, investigate them, to the point where we can let them go. And if you have a strong sense of duty, it’s a lot easier … 
  13. Feeding on the Breath
     … You can’t be just on the receiving side saying, “I want this to be made interesting for me.” After all, it is your suffering that you’re trying to overcome. You have to want to do this. This is one of the reasons why the ajaans in Thailand didn’t explain things too much to their students. They weren’t there trying to … 
  14. Heart & Mind
     … As the Buddha said, this process of fabricating emotions, if we do it with ignorance, will cause suffering. If we do it with knowledge, it actually becomes part of the path. There are three factors here. There’s bodily fabrication, which is the breath, and “breath” here is conceived in very broad terms as the energy flowing through the body. It courses along the … 
  15. Virtue Fosters Concentration
     … present moment, to be alert in the present moment, ready to open up all the doors in your mind to see where the mind is creating issues, where it’s creating suffering, and get to the root of it. So just as the meditation has an impact on the rest of your life, the rest of your life has an impact on your meditation … 
  16. Heightened Skillfulness
     … You don’t say, “Well, I have enough goodness already in me that I can afford to be lenient on some things”—in other words, to be unskillful in some areas—but who wants pain in any situation? Who wants suffering in any situation? When you really have seen the Dhamma, you realize that you don’t want to do anything at all that … 
  17. Thinking & Evaluating
     … If you’re suffering from bouts of lust, there are the traditional meditations on lust. And if the traditional meditation doesn’t seem to work with your lust, try to invent a new one that does. Work on the variations. What kind of thinking would actually help you put that lust aside? And what thought in the mind is resisting the idea? OFten the … 
  18. Your Mind is Lying to You
     … If you really love yourself, really care for yourself, really want to put an end to suffering, you have to learn to recognize the red herrings, the distractions, the good-seeming reasons that are actually going to lead you astray. Often they’re in terms of abstractions. This is one way you can recognize them. The Buddha didn’t deal with abstractions. He dealt … 
  19. In the Present
     … If you see that there’s any suffering in the mind, you want to comprehend it. If you comprehend it to the point where you can see what’s causing it, then you want to abandon the cause so that ultimately you can realize cessation; and you do all of this by developing the path: all the good qualities that need to be developed … 
  20. Your Secret Foundation
     … You could focus on things in such way that you turn them into a world, and then you’d go along with all the suffering that goes in the wake of that act. But you don’t. It’s an important skill and it’s a skill you learn as you focus with the breath. So pay a lot of attention to this process … 
  21. Safety in Awareness
     … But in the meantime, it’s good to learn how to trust what your direct awareness of things, because that can be a refuge when you’re tempted to be pulled back into everyday narratives and into the issues that bring suffering onto the mind: the narratives of aging, the narratives of illness, death, and separation. You don’t want these things to burden … 
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