Search results for: "Suffering"
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- Let Go Like a Millionaire… In other words, people suffer because they don’t understand the truth of no-self. But when you understand that truth, they say, you stop suffering. But that’s not how the Buddha taught. To begin with, he didn’t teach the three characteristics as metaphysical principles. They’re perceptions that you apply to things. You apply them strategically, in line with the duties …
- Dependent Co-arising in Fifteen Minutes… The second good thing to know is that most of the factors that have a big impact on giving rise to suffering come before sensory contact. In other words, your mind and body are primed by the way you pay attention to them—whether in ignorance or with knowledge—either to give rise to more suffering or to bring about suffering’s end. These …
- The Brightness of Life… that through our actions we can put an end to suffering. Because it turns out the suffering that weighs down the mind is the suffering that we’re creating for ourselves. The suffering that comes from outside—all the problems of human society, the problems of living in a level of being where there’s a lot of aging, illness, and death, a lot …
- Free from Buddha Nature… What are we doing that’s causing suffering? What can we do to not cause suffering? Now, you realize that you can have a strong sense of who you are around those activities. The Buddha said that part of comprehending suffering is to see that we cling to these five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, fabrication, and consciousness. Each of the aggregates is defined …
- Patience & Sensitivity… There are unskillful mental actions that lead to suffering, skillful actions that lead to the end of suffering. The awakening is to see that that’s actually true—and you see it’s true not by generalizing, but by actually following the path and putting an end to suffering. Some people describe awakening as giving assent to the three characteristics, saying, “Oh yeah, that …
- Disenchantment… He saw that the way things are interconnected in terms of cause and effect is actually a cause for suffering. And even a sense of oneness, he says, is inconstant. It contains a subtle sense of stress. If you cling to it, you’re going to suffer. There’s a passage in the Canon where he describes the highest form of oneness, which is …
- Past & Future in the Present… It comes through the qualities we develop in the mind so that, regardless of what comes floating your way, you know what to do with it so that it doesn’t create suffering. This is our big problem in life. We want happiness, but the way we handle our experiences causes stress and suffering for the mind. We have to learn how to handle …
- Not Swept Away… As the Buddha once said, our normal reaction to suffering is, one, bewilderment, and then, two, looking outside for somebody to give us advice. If you’re looking for advice, that’s okay. If you’re looking for someone else to take the suffering away, that’s a problem, because the real suffering is not caused by things outside, it’s by how we …
- Feeding on the Breath… At the same time, we can cut back a lot of the suffering that we otherwise cause ourselves. Because, as the Buddha pointed out, it’s not the bad things out there in the world that make you suffer. It’s the way you try to feed on them: That’s why you suffer. Even the good things out in the world, when you …
- Something to Stand On… You do prefer the end of suffering to continued suffering. Or as when we develop the brahmaviharas, the sublime attitudes, we prefer that everyone would be happy and that people would be able to overcome their suffering, us included. We’re happy for people when they’re happy or are acting on the causes for happiness. These are things we prefer. What it means …
- Nobility Is the Best Policy … The suffering itself is our clinging and it’s caused by our craving. When we understand suffering that way, we’re taking a noble attitude toward it. The same with the path: It’s a path of practice in which we take responsibility for our suffering and for putting an end to it. We realize that we’ve been making mistakes. We see our …
- Boring… This is why you identify with the boredom that’s hiding something that’s causing you to suffer. So you’ve got to remember: The things that you hold onto are causing you to suffer. However much you may like them, however much mileage you may get out of making them part of your internal narrative, you’ve got to remind yourself: If you …
- The Flamethrowing Mind… As we learn how not to suffer, we can help other people not to suffer, too. Sometimes we’re told that Theravadins are selfish, looking after their own good, trying to end their own suffering, without trying to save the rest of the world. Well, you can’t save other people. People suffer because of their own lack of skill. You can’t make …
- Commit & Reflect… You see that you’re suffering because of a lack of skill in terms of your craving and ignorance. In fact, the word ignorance means, “lack of skill,” in addition to meaning, “not knowing.” But you also have the choice of developing the skills of the noble eightfold path and arriving at the end of suffering. So the choices have to be made. You …
- Believe in Your Actions… The four noble truths seem to be all about suffering and stress—however you want to translate dukkha—but the pattern is that these things come from your actions. The end of suffering and stress also comes from your actions. This is why the Buddha talks about action so much. He calls his teaching a kammavadi, a teaching about action. That’s why right …
- Mindfulness as Refuge… This is where you’ve got to train the mind so that it can depend on itself, so that it doesn’t add any unnecessary suffering. And as we find out, the unnecessary suffering is the suffering that weighs the mind down. The necessary pains of life don’t have to weigh the mind down. That’s the Buddha’s message. And so it …
- Shoulds & Desires… You should try to comprehend suffering. You should try to abandon its cause. You should try to realize the cessation of suffering. And you do that by developing the path. All that activity you should and should not do is also about directing your desires, because the craving that leads to suffering—craving for sensuality, becoming, and non-becoming—doesn’t cover all the …
- Maybe the Buddha Knew Something… We’re suffering not because of things happening outside, and we’re not simply on the receiving end of suffering. We’re actually doing it. We’re doing things that we hope will lead to happiness but they’re leading to suffering, stress, disturbance. Often, we don’t even see the connection between our actions and the results we’re getting. Here’s the …
- Trust in Heedfulness… We see that we’re suffering, that we’re surrounded by suffering, and a lot of suffering lies ahead of us if we’re not careful. It’s through being careful, through being heedful, through not being complacent, that we can do something about it. That’s the important message here: We can do something about this suffering. Aging, illness, and death are lying …
- Analysis of Qualities… You begin to notice certain ways of thinking that you’ve held on to for a long time that are actually causing you stress and suffering. And keep in mind the possibility you don’t have to suffer. That’s what that larger picture is all about. Because it’s not just about thinking about all those beings in the world who are suffering …
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