Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Proactive with Pain
     … One of the Buddha’s great gifts was teaching us the skills that we’re going to need to face these things, so that we don’t have to suffer. We suffer from these things, he said, because we cling; we’re trying to feed on things that age, grow ill, and die. Because they slip through our fingers, we cling all the more … 
  3. A Private Matter
     … After all, the suffering you’re causing yourself is a private affair, something nobody else can see. Even when we live together day in and day out, each of us is making a lot of decisions that nobody else here will know. We may see some of the outside effects, but the actual experience of suffering — your suffering, your pain: You’re the only … 
  4. Chronic Pain
     … As the Buddha said, he taught suffering and the end of suffering, and he offered the end of suffering as something you would want. It’s okay to want to put an end to suffering, but you have to do it wisely. You have to attack the problem at the cause. We’d like to get rid of the pain that we have in … 
  5. A Wealthy Memory
    The Buddha’s analysis of the causes of suffering makes the point that the question of whether we’re going to suffer or not depends primarily on what we bring into the present moment. In other words, you don’t necessarily suffer because there are painful feelings in the present. Sometimes you can suffer from pleasant feelings in the present, and vice versa: There … 
  6. Action & the End of Action
    The Buddha’s teachings are basically instructions on how to train the mind to put an end to suffering and to find true happiness. It’s interesting that in that précis right there, a lot of the terms are undefined: In the Pali Canon mind is not defined; suffering is not defined; happiness is not defined. In fact, the Pali words for those things … 
  7. Wise About Mistakes
     … He didn’t say he would teach the end of suffering only for people who didn’t deserve to suffer. We’ve all done things that would lead to suffering and have led to suffering. He wants to show us the way out regardless of our past. This is one of the reasons why Buddhism is not so much concerned with justice. It’s … 
  8. Directing Yourself Rightly
     … At the same time, though, you don’t let yourself rest content with the state of your mind until it’s reached the point where it really isn’t suffering any more. As long as there’s still suffering or there’s still stress, there’s still work to be done, so you don’t rest content. Try to gather up the strengths you … 
  9. The Flow of Time
     … The nature of suffering is always the same. The cause of suffering is always the same. The path to the end of suffering is always the same. And what it means to put a cessation to suffering: That’s always the same. These truths are timeless. They allow us to step back from the flow of time. And to see: What are you doing … 
  10. The Regularity of the Dhamma
     … When you look at things in an inappropriate way, you frame issues in an inappropriate way, which means that your fabrications are going to lead to suffering. All the other elements of name and form and consciousness will tend toward suffering and stress as well. But you can change that way of attending to things. You can look at things in terms of the … 
  11. Karma as an Island
     … You can bring an expectation of suffering into the present; or you can bring an expectation that there is a way out of suffering. It’s your choice, so remember that you have that choice. And learn to develop it, so that you’re looking for the right things in the present moment that will maximize your ability to put an end to suffering … 
  12. Gratitude to Things
     … Which means that our lives depend on suffering, not only our own, but also that of other beings. This contemplation spurs you even further to try to find a way out. What is the escape from this burdensome process? How can we find a happiness that doesn’t depend on other people’s suffering, other beings’ suffering? So when you think of the goodness … 
  13. The Karma of Meditation
     … That’s what the Buddha calls the duty with regard to suffering: to comprehend it. Primarily he’s focusing on the suffering of stress in the mind. But to comprehend that, you have to consider how the mind conceives of, say, pain in the body. How does it conceive unpleasant emotions in a way that makes it suffer even more? For most of us … 
  14. Delight in the Dhamma
    You may have noticed a phrase in the sutta we chanted just now—“The cause of suffering is craving accompanied by passion and delight”—which makes it sound as if all delight is bad, which sounds pretty discouraging. Does the Buddha want us to have a totally equanimous blank emotional state? The answer is, “No.” He actually recommends six kinds of delight on the … 
  15. The Steadiness of Your Gaze
     … It’s got to figure out why it’s causing suffering, exactly where it’s causing suffering. The Buddha emphasized the issue of karma and intention, so we look to see: What intentions are there in the mind that make us suffer? Why don’t we see them? Why do we feel that those choices are so necessary that we even forget they’re … 
  16. To Depend on Yourself
     … Once you have right view about actions and right view about suffering, then the natural resolve is going to be, “Let’s put an end to that suffering. Let’s learn how to be more skillful.” But right resolve itself is what basically shapes right view. After all, the Buddha was speaking about ways of putting an end to suffering, and two of the … 
  17. The Buddha’s Compassion
     … Then the Buddha concluded by saying, “It’s only stress that I teach and the ending of stress.” Or if you translate dukkha as “suffering”: “It’s only suffering that I teach and the ending of suffering.” Some people take that to say, “Well, in that case, all the teachings we have about devas and nagas and other levels of being are probably not … 
  18. Goodwill as Restraint
     … And thinking that someone deserves to suffer is not a right view of any kind at all. The whole purpose of the teaching is that although people are suffering, they don’t have to suffer. In other words, the Buddha’s saying they don’t deserve to suffer. Even though they’ve done bad in the past, that doesn’t mean that they deserve … 
  19. Intelligent Equanimity
     … You can have compassion for them and they still don’t get released from their suffering. You can have appreciation for their happiness, but they abuse it. They abuse their power, they abuse their wealth. You begin to realize that there’s only so much you can do, not only for other people but also for yourself. That’s where the reflection on karma … 
  20. Knowledge over Fear
     … And although we live in a world where there is aging, illness, and death, and there are people doing unskillful things, still you can prepare yourself so that you can deal with those things and not have to suffer. You can age but not suffer from aging. You can grow ill not suffer from the illness. You can even die and not suffer from … 
  21. Seclusion
     … Ajaan Fuang once said that you need the equanimity of jhana so that the attitudes of goodwill, compassion, and appreciation don’t cause you suffering. You look around and you can see that there are lots of people you feel goodwill for but they’re not happy; people you feel compassion for and you can’t help them out of their suffering. There seem … 
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