Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. The Power to Transcend Suffering
     … When the Buddha talks about suffering, we think he’s being pessimistic. Actually, we’re the ones who’ve been pessimistic, thinking that we’ve got to suffer. He says that the suffering in the heart is unnecessary, and that there’s a way out. So that’s what we’re working on here: the way out of suffering. But it requires getting acquainted … 
  3. One Thing Clear Through
     … But why have ill will for them? Why ask for them to have even more suffering? They’re going to be suffering from their past actions anyhow. And it’s not the case that when people suffer, they begin to realize the error of their ways. All too often, they dish out more suffering, excrete more greed, aversion, and delusion into the world. It … 
  4. Evaluation
     … In that way, you find that you can face any kind of suffering, any kind of pain at all with a sense of confidence—remembering that that kind of suffering is optional, the suffering that comes from your own ignorance, so that you don’t have to keep on being a victim over and over again.
  5. Own Your Actions
     … The things that are coming in may be the raw material for creating that suffering, but you don’t have to create suffering out of them. Now, some people don’t like to hear this. It makes them think that they’re being blamed for their sufferings. But it’s not so much a question of blame, it’s just noticing where the cause … 
  6. Learn from the Ants
     … The end of suffering comes when you just accept that. Look for the fact that whatever you love and hold on to is going to leave you someday. Accept that, and then when it leaves you, you’re okay. That’s accepting suffering and claiming it to be the end of suffering. Again, that wouldn’t have satisfied the Buddha. And don’t let … 
  7. The Uses of Equanimity
     … But that doesn’t really end the suffering. And that’s not what the Buddha taught at all. He didn’t claim to teach only one thing. He taught suffering and the end of suffering as two different things. There is a way out. There is an escape. Suffering does end. But you have to learn to accept where there is suffering and what … 
  8. Right View, Right Attention
     … Appropriate attention is the quality of mind that takes what you’ve learned from right view about what’s skillful and what’s not skillful, what leads to suffering, what leads away from suffering, and actually applies that knowledge—in this case, each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out. What this means is that you’re approaching the present moment with … 
  9. People Suffer from Their Thinking
     … After she left, he commented to one of his students, “People these days suffer because of their thinking.” It’s interesting the way he said that—“people these days”—as if people didn’t suffer from their thinking in the past. Maybe he meant that prior to that time, Thailand was poor and most people were just worried about eating, surviving. Now that people … 
  10. More than Just Letting Go
     … that the Buddha said he wanted to end all suffering in the world. Well, no. He wanted to end the kind of suffering that people cause themselves unnecessarily. That’s what he focused on. He couldn’t go out and erase their suffering for them, but he could teach them how to solve their own sufferings themselves. After all, each of us suffers from … 
  11. Assumptions
     … to question the assumptions we have that make us suffer. And as part of the path, you replace them with other perceptions, some of which you learn from other people, such as the Buddha, and others of which you actually notice for yourself. So you don’t feel so compelled to keep on suffering. You start noticing what you’re doing that’s causing … 
  12. Goodness & Goodwill
     … You’re looking for someone’s suffering. You think, “Well, it would be useful suffering, helpful suffering—maybe teach them a lesson.” Yet there are a lot of people out there who suffer for their unskillful actions but don’t see the connection between their unskillful actions and the suffering. They think the suffering is wrongly imposed. So they never learn anything. What you … 
  13. The Broken Gong
     … This way you find that in the present moment there’s the potential to suffer, but there’s also the potential not to suffer. We’re working on the skill of how not to suffer, no matter what happens. That’s our gift from the Buddha. So don’t leave it on the shelf. Take it down and put it to use.
  14. Discernment Through Right Effort
     … Essentially, what’s talked about in right effort are the duties with regard to the cause of suffering and the duties with regard to the path. The further duties include trying to comprehend suffering. In other words, you look at it and try to figure out, in any situation: Where is the suffering right now? Where is the stress right now? And what kind … 
  15. The Thoroughbred Horse
     … When you’re suffering, if you place the blame on other people outside, you’re not going to see the real causes of suffering, because those causes happen inside. You’re acting on ignorance and, as a result, you’re doing things that are causing harm, causing suffering. Well, you can bring knowledge to that and turn your actions into a path to the … 
  16. Conviction in the End of Suffering
     … There’s stress, suffering, which comes down to clinging. There’s a cause for suffering, which is craving, and there’s a cessation of suffering that comes from putting an end to the cause. And there’s a path of practice that leads to that cessation: the noble eightfold path. Now, this is radically different, because that third noble truth is special. The four … 
  17. Countercultural Conditioning
     … The Buddha’s basically giving you new conditions for the purpose of putting an end to suffering. As he said, the purpose of our thinking is to put an end to suffering. It’s why we start thinking to begin with: If we didn’t have any suffering, who would think? You’d just bliss out. But we start thinking and talking because we … 
  18. The Right Medicine
     … Of course, the big problem we all share is that we’re suffering: We suffer because of our craving, and we have craving because of ignorance. Sometimes we’re ignorant that we’re suffering, or exactly what the suffering is. We know that there’s pain in our lives, but the question is: What kind of pain is important? Some people are really concerned … 
  19. Fear of Mistakes
     … You want to comprehend suffering so that you can get beyond it. You want to abandon the cause—what you’ve been doing—so that it doesn’t cause any more suffering. You want to realize the cessation of suffering, so you want to develop the path that takes you there. Those are all values in your favor. Those are all good standards to … 
  20. Modest in Manner, but Not in Goals
     … This is purely an internal matter, because the question of suffering is basically the mind’s relationship to itself: the things you do and then the suffering that comes as a result. We may say that we suffer because of things other people have done to us or are doing to us, but it’s really how we take in that information that makes … 
  21. Inner Critics
     … We’re here because we’re suffering. And at least part of us realizes that the suffering that really weighs the mind down is the suffering we’re causing ourselves. This is why a necessary part of being a practitioner is learning how to be a self-starter. In the beginning, learning about the Dhamma alerts you to the fact that the suffering that … 
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