Search results for: "Suffering"

  1. Page 135
  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. Factors for Awakening
     … As the Buddha points out, what makes the mind suffer is not so much events out there in the world, it’s how the mind processes them. It’s in the functioning of the mind where the real problem lies. So this is where your full attention should be. Mindfulness is founded on good virtue. As you take the precepts and make up your … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. The Joy of the Battle
     … So you’re not dealing with just little things, you’re dealing with the big problem that causes us to suffer. As the Buddha said, you can trace back, way, way back, and you cannot find a beginning point for ignorance. Even he couldn’t find one, and his memory of previous lifetimes was very, very long. But he says you can see what … 
  17. Lift Up Your Heart
     … I know some people who don’t like the sense of being forced into the Dhamma because of the fact of suffering. They’d rather be in a position where they could freely choose with no sense that they were being forced to choose. Well, you are free to choose, and you’re free to focus on whichever aspect of the Dhamma you find … 
  18. Seven Facets of Discernment
     … There are ways to focus the mind even as the body is dying so the mind doesn’t have to suffer. We’re told some of these skills as we read about how to meditate, but we have to learn the rest of them from observing our own minds as they relate to the breath, as they relate to distraction. As they relate to … 
  19. Clear of Defilement
     … feel right now.” Ask yourself, “If you really love yourself, are you going to let that attitude take over? If you do, you’re setting yourself up for all kinds of suffering down the road.” Part of the mind will say, “I don’t care,” and you have to learn how not to identify with the “I don’t care” attitude. It’s like … 
  20. Impossible Things
     … But of course what’s easier to handle also brings on more suffering. As the Buddha said, “Lay life is hard. Life as a renunciate is hard.” But at least life as a renunciate takes you someplace really worth going to. When you finally make up your mind that you’re really going to train yourself, it makes that goal less of an impossibility … 
  21. Good Traditions
     … It changes into something else—into pain and suffering. So we want to look into the mind for our happiness. That means we have to train the mind. If the mind isn’t trained, it’s going to keep slipping outside, looking for a quick fix, looking for something easy: nice sights, nice sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, which are like junk food for … 
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