Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Painful Feelings, Hurtful Words
     … But why do we suffer from them? We suffer from craving and clinging. This gets into the second feature of the Buddha’s way of analyzing the problem around these things that we have to develop patience and endurance for. That’s that we lay claim to things, lay claim to areas of our life, and then these things seem to come in and … 
  3. A Mind Like Earth
     … It’s creating suffering. It doesn’t want suffering, and it doesn’t want to create suffering, but it does. You’ve got to figure that out. It requires watching it and watching parts of the mind you don’t like and not getting shaken by them. This is why you have to make the mind like earth, so that it can be ready … 
  4. Inner Worlds
     … Because otherwise, there’s no real escape from the suffering we cause ourselves. Remember the Buddha’s teachings on the four noble truths: The suffering that weighs the mind down is the suffering that comes from inside, not from things outside. If we’re constantly focusing on things outside—“This is wrong, that’s wrong”—we’re missing the point. The point is that … 
  5. Understanding Through Developing
     … You just see suffering, suffering, suffering, and there’s only one thing to do—and that’s to let go. That’s when, the Buddha says, you have the arising of the realization of “all phenomena are not self.” It’s a value judgment: All things are not worth clinging to anymore. You clung to them because you thought they would give happiness: They … 
  6. How to Straighten Out the World
     … What you can do, though, is work on the suffering that comes from craving and ignorance. That is under your power. If you can cut through that, then you’re in a good position. One, you yourself suffer a lot less. And two, when you’re suffering a lot less, you can see where you can really genuinely be of help to other people … 
  7. Delight
     … The first in the list is delight in the Dhamma—the fact that there’s a Dhamma teaching us that there is an end of suffering, and that it can be attained through human effort. This Dhamma explains how we suffer, why we suffer. It explains the big issues of life: aging, illness, death, separation. It gives reliable guidance in how to act, how … 
  8. The Path Converges Right Here
     … But, as the Buddha said, the best use of it is to figure out this problem of suffering. Why is it that we keep causing ourselves suffering? Exactly what is the suffering that weighs us down? Well, it’s the suffering we create, not so much the suffering that comes in through the senses. Notice when you take, say, a pain from outside, or … 
  9. Truth Through Training
     … So when he talks about abandoning the truth of the cause of suffering or comprehending the truth of suffering, it’s not a matter of comprehending the words or abandoning the words. You’re trying to realize: Where is the reality in my mind right now, in my heart right now, that’s creating the suffering and what is the reality of that suffering … 
  10. Truths of the Will
     … Looking at things the right way basically means looking at them in terms of the four noble truths, looking at the world in terms of suffering and the cause of suffering, the possibility for an end of suffering, and the fact that there is a path of practice leading there. You look at your mind and see which events in the mind fall into … 
  11. Magha Puja
     … But when there’s real discernment, real insight into seeing the mind as it’s creating unnecessary suffering for itself right then and there, seeing that it is suffering, seeing that it’s unnecessary, that’s all you really need to let go. This is how you purify the mind: seeing where you’re causing unnecessary stress and suffering. As the Buddha told Rahula … 
  12. Slings and Arrows of Ordinary Fortunes
     … They’re not engaged with the suffering; they’re not engaged with the cause of suffering. As part of the path, you nourish them. And when you reach the goal, you don’t have to do anything more. Even less of a burden. You look back and you see the way you were constantly feeding on things outside. That’s why you shoot yourself … 
  13. Comfortable as an Outsider
    Comfortable as an Outsider December 28, 2019 We suffer largely because of the way we talk to ourselves. That’s what the message of the four noble truths is all about. It’s not that we suffer from sights, sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile sensations. We suffer because of the commentary we apply to these things. And a lot of meditation is learning to … 
  14. How to Talk to Yourself
     … The basic principles of right view are that there is suffering in life and it’s caused by the actions of your mind. That’s not to place blame on you. It’s to point to you that there’s an opportunity: If you change the actions of your mind, then you don’t have to suffer. Suffering can be put to an end … 
  15. Outside of the Box
     … If we don’t, who’s going to suffer? Well, we’re going to suffer. And when we suffer, we find it easy to make other people suffer, too. The Buddha doesn’t force anyone to practice. He simply says if you want to resolve the issues in your life, this is how they get resolved. This is what you have to do, and … 
  16. Using Right View Rightly
     … Simply, “This is suffering, and this is the cause of suffering. This is the activity that leads to suffering, and this is the activity that leads to the end of suffering.” They get identified, and then you can look at your experience in those terms. You begin to see that even your sense of who you are or what the world is, and the … 
  17. Feeding Instructions
     … We had that chant just now: “those who don’t discern suffering.” It sounds odd. When people are suffering, they should know they’re suffering, you’d think. But that’s not what the Buddha means. To discern suffering, he says, means to see what it really is: It’s clinging to the aggregates. As you know, his explanation of the first noble truth … 
  18. Exploring Possibilities
     … You see possibilities in the mind, possibilities for letting go of old habits that create suffering. So when anything new comes up in the mind, keep reflecting back on that question: What does this new mind state show about the mind’s possibilities? What does it show about how the mind can relate to things in a way that involves less suffering? Keep your … 
  19. The Treasure Hunt
     … the feelings of suffering and the knowledge of actions. The second knowledge suggested that there was a connection between the two, so the Buddha decided to see if this was true. These two are very certain things. When you’re suffering, no one can convincingly tell you, “That’s not really suffering; you’re not suffering.” Other things you might know can be shaped … 
  20. Craving & Desire on the Path
     … After all, suffering is an inside job. It’s something that we’re doing to ourselves, and the end of suffering is going to require a skill so that we can stop doing the suffering. In the Buddha’s analysis, the causes leading up to suffering all come from ignorance, avijjā. The opposite of ignorance, vijjā, has two meanings in Pali: One, it means … 
  21. Audacious & Undaunted
     … The first noble truth was the truth of suffering. He saw that suffering isn’t just pain. It’s clinging. We cling to the form of the body. We cling to our feelings. We cling to our perceptions, our thought constructs, our consciousness. And in that clinging is the suffering. Why do we cling? We cling because of craving. If you can comprehend the … 
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