Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Heedful of Death
     … And seven lifetimes can contain a lot of stress and suffering. So as the Buddha said, just as the footprint of the elephant can contain the other footprints of all the other animals that walk on land, in the same way, heedfulness contains all skillful qualities within it. This is why we think about death: to spark our heedfulness so that we can get … 
  3. Insight Is a Judgment Call
     … Insight is always a judgment call, and the practice is designed to improve your values, improve your sense of judgment, so that you can finally judge where you’re causing yourself unnecessary suffering and why it’s better to stop. That’s the best judgment call of all.
  4. The Fires of Sensuality
     … The message is that, as long as we’re unawakened, we’re suffering from distorted perceptions. And it doesn’t help that the body needs food in order to survive, and that certain things taste good while other things don’t taste good. It’s very easy to get attached to the flavors of those things, and from there we can attached to other … 
  5. Fear of Death
     … So one of the most important parts of the practice is learning how to step back from your cravings because you really want to realize that these “friends” are the cause of suffering. This is where it’s good to contemplate those four noble truths again and again and again, to see in action, when craving comes up, that there’s going to be … 
  6. Training the Mind
     … So short-term happiness can easily lead to long-term suffering, which is a bad deal. What you’re looking for is something that leads to long-term happiness, and you do that by developing good qualities in the mind. In other words, you realize what’s important is not so much what’s coming *in *through the senses; it’s how the mind … 
  7. Guardian Meditations, Right & Wrong
     … We remind ourselves that it is possible, with the Buddha’s example, to find an awakening that takes us beyond suffering. So what are we doing, mucking around and not following the path? We practice thoughts of goodwill to remind ourselves that we’ve got to keep our motivation in line with that path if we really care about our happiness. We practice contemplation … 
  8. The Mind Comes First
     … You want to be very clear about that, because it’ll make the difference between suffering from the experience or not. Experience is also composed of things coming in from your past actions, and you don’t have much control over which past actions are going to ripen at any one time. The image is of seeds in a field. Every time you have … 
  9. Flexibility
     … I realized that as long as I was stuck on the idea that I really wanted to get that translation project done, I was going to suffer. But if you say, “Okay, now is not the time to work on that,” put it aside, and do what needs to be done right now, whether it’s a job you feel confident doing or one … 
  10. How to Save the World
     … They all lead to suffering. To watch out for these things, we really have to train the mind. Action here is not just a matter of what you do and what you say. It also covers what you think. Of course, what you think is going to determine what you do and what you say. The intentions that shape your life come out of … 
  11. Choiceful Awareness
     … the skills that are needed for that insight really to have an impact on the mind, to have the really desired effect—which is to train the mind not to create suffering for itself. So remember that what we’re developing here is a skill, and the skill has to go through very basic steps. Don’t think that you’re too advanced for … 
  12. Terror & Revulsion
     … This sharpens your focus, gives you more energy to practice, to try to understand how it is that the mind can spend so much time working, working, working for happiness and yet acting in ways that actually cause suffering or leave you unprotected when aging, illness, and death come. So it’s good to reflect on these things, to remind yourself why you’re … 
  13. The Joy of Curiosity
     … We think something will give good results and it doesn’t, or you thought that certain results were okay, acceptable, but you realize that if you keep putting up with that level of what’s acceptable, you’re going to keep on suffering. So, you have to raise the standards for all three functions—the commentator, the consumer, the producer—by watching them in … 
  14. Xtreme Drama
     … It didn’t have the drama, didn’t have the excitement or grandeur of someone who gets excited enough to go out and kill somebody and then has to suffer the consequences. Again, that’s the kind of mindset that deals in extremes. Would you like to be somebody who is constantly going through one extreme or the other? Part of the mind enjoys … 
  15. Getting Untangled from Thorns
     … This is where the discernment becomes your own because, after all, it is your stress, it is your suffering that you’re dealing with, along with the fact that you’re causing it and that these are things you experience from within. You can read about these things and have all kinds of theories and have everything all correct so that you can explain … 
  16. Luminous
     … It’s because you have these potentials inside that you have the opportunity to put an end to suffering, that you can find a happiness that has no drawbacks whatsoever. There’s a responsibility that comes with freedom. But there’s also the possibility of being totally unlimited. So try to explore that possibility as much as you can.
  17. The Truth of Perceptions
     … In this case, as a hindrance, the desire falls under the cause of suffering, so you’ve got abandon it. So when the Buddha says that perceptions are mirages, he’s not saying that they’re totally without relationship to reality. The question simply is, for what purpose are you using your perceptions? When a perception is useful for one particular instance or one … 
  18. The Skill of Patience
     … Now, part of your mind may say, “Well, I’d like to see them suffer a little bit first, so that they could have a taste of what they’ve done to others.” But then you can ask yourself, “Is that a part of the mind that you really want to encourage?” Then you start thinking: “If they’re going to be happy through … 
  19. Listening to the Body
     … After all, the knowledge that leads to the end of suffering doesn’t lie somewhere else. It lies in developing an attitude that’s willing to look at the little things, to see what they hold inside.
  20. Why It’s Good to Know Why
     … But for that to become genuine knowledge, we have to follow the directions ourselves, commit ourselves to what he’s taught us, reflect on what we’re doing, so that the path becomes our path—because we’ve done our best to take his explanation of why and use it to our advantage—coming to understand why there’s suffering, and how we can … 
  21. How to Listen
     … When thoughts branch out, where are they taking you? Well, back to your old ways, to more suffering. So you learn how to let them go. You realize that you’re now in a position where you can let them go. If we were totally passive and simply had to put up with whatever comes, then it would be okay to say, “Well, just … 
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