Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. A Refuge from Karma
     … That enlarges your mind, and the enlarged mind suffers a lot less than the narrow, constricted mind that’s constantly worried about this, worried about that, overcome by pain. You train the mind in virtue, you train it in discernment, so that it doesn’t have to suffer from things. You train it not to be overcome by pleasure or pain. You do that … 
  3. Accepting the Buddha’s Standards
     … After all, the four noble truths don’t point just to suffering and the cause of suffering. They also point to the path and to the cessation of suffering. Those things can be a part of life, too. Now, a lot of people wouldn’t want to be bothered, but again, that’s their choice, and we should be allowed ours. Ajaan Fuang talks … 
  4. Duties in the Present
     … If you notice any stress or suffering, you try to comprehend it. In particular, look at the patterns of thinking that contribute to that stress and suffering. Those are the things you let go. You don’t let go of stress. You let go of the cause. As you let go of the cause, you get some hint of what that third noble truth … 
  5. The Sublime Attitudes in Context
     … When you see that they’re suffering, you want to feel compassion for them. Again you don’t want to pile on more suffering. When you see that they’re happy, you don’t want to be resentful or jealous, because that can lead you to do unskillful things as well. And when you see that situations are beyond your control, you have to … 
  6. Giving Meaning to Life
     … You cause less suffering for yourself. You understand other people better, and cause them less suffering as well. So this is a project that’s really worth giving your life to. And it gives meaning to your life. It gives a direction to your life. You develop a new relationship to yourself. Ultimately you get to the point where you don’t need a … 
  7. A Path Under the Trees
     … What angle can you take on that problem of aging, illness, and death that would actually get you to something that doesn’t age, doesn’t grow ill, doesn’t die? He finally realized that by focusing on the problem of suffering—what is suffering, what causes suffering: That was the way out. The teachings of other teachers of that time all talk about … 
  8. The Buddha’s Safe Space
     … And then for the suffering you’re having now and the suffering that other people are having, or the things that you’re doing that are causing suffering now or that other people are doing: You learn how to have some compassion for yourself and others, realizing that we’re going through this world acting on ignorance. We all want happiness, we all want … 
  9. Why Limit Yourself?
     … Similarly with the belief in the cessation of becoming, which is a synonym for the cessation of suffering, or for nibbana. If you don’t believe that it’s possible, you’re not going to do anything to find it. But if you *do believe it’s possible, then you leave open the possiblity that you might make the effort to find the cessation … 
  10. Contemplating the World You Create
     … This is why we suffer, and then that suffering spills out onto other people. As you learn how to understand your mind, you do begin to understand more about the world outside, but that’s secondary. The big problem is that each of us is creating suffering, creating stress, and then we try to live in it, and we find that it’s not … 
  11. Mindfulness Aims at Concentration
     … Which is why another standard expression for the arising in the Dhamma-eye is seeing, “This is suffering,” “this is the origination of suffering,” “this is the cessation of suffering,” “this is the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering”—seeing things in terms of the four noble truths, cause and effect. So there’s a lot more going on here than … 
  12. How to Leave Meditation
     … What would you get out of their suffering, especially if you’re coming from a position of well-being? Most of the time, if we want to see other people suffer, it’s because we’re suffering. “As long as I’m suffering, let’s see everybody else suffer as well”: That attitude simply leads to more suffering. Focus on whatever sense of ease … 
  13. Smart vs. Wise
     … The beginning of wisdom, he said, is, one, you go to a contemplative— someone who’s found the end of suffering, who knows something about the deathless; in other words, you go to the right people—and then two, you ask them, “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? What is blameless? What is skillful?” And then … 
  14. Focus on the Doing
     … When the Buddha talks about four noble truths, they sound very negative, all about suffering, but only the first two truths are actually negative. The last two—the end of suffering and the path to the end of suffering—are positive. The path to the end of suffering includes right concentration, which includes rapture, pleasure, both physical pleasure and mental pleasure, along with strong … 
  15. In Accordance with the Dhamma
     … We, too, can put an end to suffering. We live in a world where that possibility is open. So we don’t want to close off the door by saying, “Well, I’m not going to try,” or “I don’t believe in it,” or “I don’t think it’ll work.” Look at yourself and ask yourself, “Have you suffered enough? How much … 
  16. Sensitive to Fabrication
     … You’re putting up with a lot of pain and suffering that you don’t have to.” This is why he encourages us to look at the suffering inherent in these things—everything that’s intended. “Wherever there’s change,” he said, “look for the element of stress there.” Because, when you look there, you can see there’s fabrication—you realize you’re … 
  17. Training Your Selves
    When the Buddha lists examples of suffering or stress in the first noble truth, one of them is not getting what you want: frustrated desire. He gives an example: You’re a being subject to aging, but you don’t want to age. That desire can’t be fulfilled simply through the desire. It’s not something to be gained just by wanting. You … 
  18. In Control
     … In other words, the breath becomes your path to the end of suffering, the body becomes part of your path to the end of suffering, your thoughts all become devoted to the end of suffering. You can make that choice and you don’t want anybody else to come and unmake it. You don’t want any random emotions or old habits to come … 
  19. As They’ve Come to Be
    The Buddha said we suffer from the craving that leads to becoming. So, that’s what we have to focus on: What is becoming? What is that craving? And how do we get out of that situation? He says it’s a special problem because the craving that leads to becoming includes craving for sensuality, craving for becoming—which makes sense—and then also … 
  20. Potentials for Good
     … Which means that when you see somebody suffering, or see somebody doing something that could lead to suffering, you don’t just say, “Well, that’s their past karma,” and leave it at that. The same when you look at yourself: You don’t say, “All I’ve got is the karma I see right now.” If we’re born as human beings, we … 
  21. To See What You’re Doing
     … So, what is your mind doing right now? Some of the actions you do can lead to suffering, and others can lead to the end of suffering. That was the basic message of his first talk: that it is possible, through your actions, to put an end to suffering. So you want to pay careful attention to your actions, having a strong sense that … 
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