Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Representing the World to Itself
     … As the Buddha said, suffering is not necessary. There may be some suffering in the path, but it’s not going to be there forever. There are ways of acting where you can create less and less suffering for yourself and for the people around you. As long as you’re open to that possibility, there are other ways of perceiving things. There’s … 
  3. Freedom
     … Sometimes the things we do to gain happiness make us suffer further down the line, sometimes they make us suffer right here in the present moment, but we’ve learned to block that suffering out of our awareness, so we miss it. At the same time, our happiness often place burdens on other people as well. Look at the fact you’ve got a … 
  4. A Well-thatched Roof
     … In other words, suffering results in craving. But that doesn’t give you any idea of how you’re going to get rid of the suffering. It’s basically saying you have to put up with the craving and the suffering. Learn to embrace them, and you’ll be okay. So there are lots of different ways you can be passionate for ignorance, and … 
  5. For the Cessation of Dukkha
     … We’re in the right spot so that we can develop the sense of well-being that will counteract the causes of suffering. Then we can see those causes more clearly. As the Buddha says, any craving that leads to becoming is going to be a cause for suffering. So you want to notice what little becomings are appearing in the mind. For the … 
  6. Working with Fabrication
    When the Buddha lists the various conditions that lead to suffering, he starts out with the way ignorance conditions our fabrications. It sounds pretty abstract, but it’s actually a very useful tool for understanding what we’re doing and how we can step back from the way we ordinarily create suffering. We can learn how to fabricate in ways that are actually more … 
  7. Acceptance
     … You can act in skillful ways and not have to suffer. But he wanted to see if you could put an end to suffering entirely. That led to his third knowledge, the four noble truths. The important part of the four noble truths is that they have duties. Suffering is to be comprehended. Craving, its cause, is to be abandoned. Cessation, dispassion for craving … 
  8. Feed the Hungry Mind
     … We fix our food in ignorance, which is why we suffer. But with knowledge, we can fix our food in a way that leads to the end of suffering. Of course, we don’t really know in the beginning stages. We have to listen to what the Buddha has to say, and we learn right view from following his instructions. It’s as if … 
  9. Ways to Think
     … comprehending suffering, letting go of the cause, realizing the cessation of suffering, and developing the path to the cessation of suffering. He was able to do this skillfully because he had seen the universal picture first. So when the events of your life are weighing you down, try to look at that more universal principle. Get the right perspective on things. That makes it … 
  10. Skillful Effort
     … In the Buddha’s analysis of the causes of suffering, sankhara or fabrication comes right after ignorance. We tend to fabricate, we tend to create intentions out of ignorance, and that’s why we suffer. But if we learn how to do those fabrications with knowledge, that leads to the end of suffering. These are our tools. So what are the tools? There are … 
  11. No Happiness without Restraint
     … Their singing is actually their expression of suffering. The ajaans who could understand the language of animals said that most of that language is about how much they’re suffering. Your issue, though, is: What suffering are you causing for yourself? So learn to bring the mind into concentration. That’s allow you to focus on this issue—and by focusing here, you can … 
  12. Of Past & Future
     … With stress and suffering, your duty is to comprehend it. If you happen to run into some suffering here in the present moment, try to comprehend it. If you run into any craving, recognize that that’s the cause for suffering. Do what you can to abandon it, to undercut the ignorance that makes it unskillful. As for the factors of the path — concentration … 
  13. A Mirror for the Mind
     … So our goal is to understand our actions so that we can stop creating suffering. This is what we mean when we say that we train the mind for the sake of the mind. If our actions are done in ignorance, they lead to suffering; if they’re done in knowledge, they become a path to the end of suffering. And that goal—the … 
  14. The Raft of Concepts
     … Anathapindika’s response was: “Those who hold to any of these views suffer because they’re clinging to the view. The view is conditioned, and whenever there’s clinging to anything conditioned, there’s bound to be suffering. So they’re clinging to stress.” The sectarians then said, “Well, what about your view?” And he said, essentially, “All views are conditioned. Whatever is conditioned … 
  15. In Times of Danger and Fear
     … If we don’t practice the Dhamma, we’re going to suffer. If we do practice, we won’t suffer—no matter how bad the situation is outside or how bad the situation is inside our bodies—because we’ve made the situation in our minds skillful. This is the message of the Buddha’s teachings: For all the trouble there is in the … 
  16. The Resolve to Let Go
     … If there’s somebody you’d really like to see suffer—even if that person is yourself—you have to ask yourself, “What would you gain by the suffering?” When people suffer, they tend to behave in even more unskillful ways. They tend to lash out at others. So there’s nothing really gained by wishing suffering on somebody else. The same goes for … 
  17. Values
     … Where is the potential for greater understanding in the present moment? He said it was looking at the question of suffering. Where is there suffering right now? What’s creating it? What can you do to put an end to it? His willingness to look at the world at large was what got him focused properly and kept him going on the path. The … 
  18. Healing & Protection
     … You begin to ask yourself, “Why would I want to do that?” Often we do cruel and stupid and harmful things because we’re suffering. There’s a sense of dis-ease in the mind, and we place the blame outside. Or even if we don’t blame the people outside, we feel that as long as we’re suffering, let everybody else suffer … 
  19. Ardency
     … The Buddha said that if breathing is done with ignorance, it leads to suffering. When you’re ignorant of the ways your mind talks to itself, it’s going to lead to suffering, the way you relate to feelings and perceptions is going to lead to suffering. The only way to cut through that ignorance is to be as consistently aware as possible. This … 
  20. Educating Equanimity
     … As you learn how to educate your emotions in this way, you learn an awful lot about how to overcome stress and suffering. You cause yourself less suffering; you cause other people less suffering. The help that you offer is more effective, more likely to lead to genuine well-being for everybody involved.
  21. Specifically
     … Change requires that we look very carefully at ourselves in detail, because we’re not suffering from generalities. The words of the teachings are expressed in general terms: the cause of suffering is craving, the suffering itself is clinging. You can know that and you can still suffer. To stop suffering, you have to know the details in your own awareness. Why do you … 
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