Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. The Forerunner of All Things
     … What he’s saying is that you have the opportunity not to have to suffer from the horrible things in the world. If the end of suffering required that everything in the world be perfect, it would never happen. We have to learn how to not suffer in the midst of a lot of noise, a lot of activity, a lot of unskillful intentions … 
  3. A Good Example for the World
     … And so when you think of all the suffering out in the world, the appropriate response is one, samvega: the realization that the things that people are doing to cause suffering, you’ve been doing as well, and if you don’t get your act together you’re going to be contributing more and more to the suffering. You’ve got the opportunity now … 
  4. Facing Pain
     … What’s not inevitable is that you have to suffer from it. The suffering is optional. What we have to learn is how to separate the two. It turns out that the optional part of the suffering, the second kind of dukkha, is what the mind adds through its cravings. And it’s not inevitable. In the Buddha’s image, it’s like having … 
  5. Common Ground
     … But when you come right down to it, we are the same.” In other words, we all want happiness, we’re all suffering. The details of the kind of happiness we think we want and the details of the way we suffer: Those are different. But when you get down to the common structure, it’s all the same. After all, what do the … 
  6. Your Desire to Practice
     … His teachings were for people who realized that they were suffering and that the suffering was coming from their own actions—and that it was something they’d have to cure within themselves. Because, after all, where is suffering? Show me your suffering. I can’t see it. You can’t see mine. It’s something that each of us feels in a very … 
  7. The Noble Path to Happiness
     … the question of where there’s stress and suffering, and what’s causing it, what you can do to put an end to it. This was always the Buddha’s primary concern. He wasn’t concerned about the true nature of things in and of themselves. He was concerned about the problem of suffering: why it’s happening, what can be done to put … 
  8. Right View & Right Resolve
     … realizing that when the Buddha’s talking about suffering and the cause of suffering, he’s pointing right at your heart; and not only the suffering that you know you’re experiencing, but also the ways in which you’re causing it about which you’re not so very clear. If you’re heedful, you realize, “Okay, I need to be more clear about … 
  9. The Tools of the Path
     … Some people say that the Buddha doesn’t have you accept anything unless you know it to be true, but you don’t really know the truth of suffering, or the cause of suffering, or the cessation of suffering, or the path to the cessation, until you’ve actually done the duties appropriate to these things. So when you first learn about them, it … 
  10. The Karma of Ideas
     … He’s saying basically that you should take the issue of your suffering really seriously. When you see that you’re doing something that’s causing suffering, abandon it. But first off, you’ve got to comprehend what is this suffering. That requires that we sit and look at it, but all too often, we run away from it. We try to cover it … 
  11. Skillfully Shaping Your Life
     … People sometimes complain: “Why is Buddhism so pessimistic? It talks about aging, illness, death, the unattractiveness of the body, suffering, suffering, suffering.” Well, it’s because the Buddha sees these as problems that can be solved, so he tackles them head on. It’s like a doctor who has the medicine to cure an illness. Suppose he can cure cancer. He’ll ask you … 
  12. Stop Shooting Yourself
     … It’s why training the mind is actually what enables us to overcome suffering. Remember, there are two kinds of suffering. There’s suffering in the three characteristics of inconstancy, stress, and not-self. That part can’t be avoided. It’s a necessary part of the world. The Buddha has you reflect on it to depersonalize the suffering, realizing that the nature of … 
  13. Is ‘I Am’ the Problem?
    One of the oddest explanations of the Buddha’s teachings is the idea that the cause of suffering is the conceit, “I am.” Wherever there’s a sense of “I am,” there’s going to be suffering. Where there’s no sense of “I am,” there’s going to be no suffering. That’s what they say. They present suffering as a cognitive error … 
  14. A Matter of Life & Death
     … When the Buddha said he teaches suffering and the end of suffering, he focuses mainly on the suffering that we cause unnecessarily. The word suffering, dukkha, or stress, as he uses it, has two basic meanings. There’s the stress of the three characteristics, which is everywhere in the conditioned realm. Then there’s stress in the context of the four noble truths, stress … 
  15. A Larger Perspective
     … That’s where the suffering comes from. So try to develop the qualities inside that would help you see clearly why you’re holding on to the things that are actually making you suffer. Sometimes our strongest, most resistant identity is precisely around things that make us suffer the most. Years back, when first came to America, I was on a plane with Ajaan … 
  16. What Are You Bringing?
     … Most people are nasty and mean and cruel because they’ve been suffering. If people all learned from suffering, we would have all gone to nibbana a long time ago. Most people resist learning from suffering. They can actually turn around and get worse. Most of the cruelty in this world comes, if not through the fact that people are already suffering, then through … 
  17. The Chess Game
     … The problem is for most of us is that the way we question issues of suffering and pain doesn’t frame the questions very well. We frame them out of ignorance and bewilderment, so our questions, instead of helping us get beyond suffering and stress, often actually compound the problem, leading us into more suffering, more stress. So to gain insight, the Buddha recommends … 
  18. Remorse
     … The Buddha never talks about people deserving to suffer. He simply says that certain actions lead to certain results. But he’s here to cure our problem of suffering whether it’s “deserved” or not. He never said, “I’ll teach you the end of suffering only if you don’t deserve to suffer.” The end of suffering is there for everyone, whether they … 
  19. Investigative Work
     … Actually, it delivers a lot of stress and suffering. Then it hopes you forget. Then it promises more happiness, and it delivers more stress and suffering. ** So you’ve got to learn how to uncover the facts, because, of course, the mind itself is making itself suffer. But all too often, it refuses to admit that. So you have to present it with the … 
  20. Sensuality Is a Fetter
     … Many of us learn our lessons about suffering not only from our own suffering, but also seeing the suffering of others. How many more people do you want to see suffer—how many other people do you want to help suffer—before you’re willing to take the Buddha up on his offer? That’s a question you have to answer for yourself.
  21. Genuine Goodness
     … Particularly in terms of the suffering that we place on ourselves: They don’t have to be that way. We have the choice not to suffer. We have the choice of putting things together in the mind in a way that, instead of being a burden for the mind, actually becomes a path out of suffering. This is an important insight: realizing that the … 
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