Search results for: "Suffering"
- Page 49
- Ups & Downs… That, plus the determination that you really do want to put an end to suffering. You can fuel that determination by reminding yourself of all the sufferings you’ve been through, those that you can remember. Think also of the sufferings the Buddha tells you about that you can’t remember: all the times you’ve had your head cut off, all the times …
- A World Apart… But the actual skill with which you deal with these things—the extent to which you suffer or don’t suffer—depends totally on you. And this is an issue that should take high priority in your life. This means that meditation is not simply something you stick into a few free moments. It’s a matter of life and death: the life of …
- Start with Goodwill… May all beings be freed from suffering. That’s basically what goodwill feels when it sees people suffering. You want them to get out of that suffering. Then there’s empathetic joy, which is what goodwill feels when it sees those who are happy: May they continue being happy. That means, May they continue being skillful. Or if they’ve had a lapse — in …
- Gratitude for Birth… In any case, birth is suffering. There’s the suffering of being in the womb, the suffering of being pushed out of the womb. Many babies die right then. Many mothers die at the same time. Of course, there’s the pain and suffering for the mother: nine months of carrying this weight around in her belly. There’s that story in the Canon …
- Mundane Right View… In other words, instead of worrying about whether it’s me or not me, or whether things really exist out there or don’t really exist, you just look at your experience in terms of where there are sufferings, what you’re doing to cause the sufferings. Again, it’s the principle of action and its result, in that case unskillful action. There’s …
- Feeding Frenzy: Dependent Co-arising… The focus of your attention should be to understand: “What is the cause of suffering? What are the causes for the end of suffering? If I see myself doing something that leads to suffering, how can I stop? If I see that there are states of mind that lead to an end to suffering, how can I encourage them? How can I develop them …
- Admirable Friendship… The fourth quality is discernment, noticing where you’re causing unnecessary suffering and seeing how it’s related to your actions. You learn how to stop doing the things that cause unnecessary suffering and to develop the qualities that lead to the end of suffering instead. So when you find people outside who have these qualities, you should associate with them and emulate them …
- The Power of Human Effort… As the Buddha said, we suffer because we fabricate our experience—but not out of whole cloth. We fabricate it out of potentials that come from our past karma, yet our present actions play a huge role in shaping the way we experience things. Most often, we do it out of ignorance, which is why we suffer. But if you bring knowledge to these …
- Facing Your Responsibilities… This way you cause less suffering for yourself, less suffering for others. And your life has a very clear sense of direction. There’s so little in the world that you can really straighten out, but you can straighten out your own mind. When the mind is straightened out, then the effect that you have on the world is not colored by greed, anger …
- Practicing on Your Own… how suffering is caused and where you look for the cause so that you can put an end to the suffering, and what you do to put an end to the suffering. These principles don’t change from time to time. You want to hold to these things, because not only does the culture at large tend to dismiss the whole idea of actions …
- Fear… In particular, it begins to see that through clinging there’s got to be suffering. It not only causes immediate suffering in the present but it also leads you to do things that cause even more suffering on into the future. They talk about the person who practices the Dhamma as being a warrior. Well, one of the lessons of being a good warrior …
- Tools of Perception… We go around with a lot of perceptions that can weigh us down, that actually cause a lot of suffering. Then there are other perceptions that help alleviate the suffering. Then there’s a point where the perceptions have done their work, and you put them aside. That’s the correct use of all the different ideas and concepts we pick up from the …
- Recovering Your Balance… That’s what the teaching on suffering is all about. If suffering were just something that happened to us because of things outside—if conditions outside are bad, so we suffer, and if conditions are good, we don’t—then the issue wouldn’t be inside. The issue would be outside. The thing is, when conditions are bad, we can suffer. When conditions are …
- In the Driver’s Seat… But more importantly, the question is, even with pains that come from your past actions, the suffering you’re creating around them is something you’re doing right now, which means you can change that. You can change the perceptions you have around the pain. You can ask yourself where the clinging is—because after all, the suffering is in the clinging. Are you …
- Standards for Thinking… The basic message is that whatever suffering weighs down the mind is comes from within, comes from your craving; and the way to put an end to it comes down to training your thoughts, your words, and your deeds. That cuts through a lot of garbage right there. All too often, you tell yourself you’re suffering because of this person or that event …
- Delight & Beyond Delight… It wasn’t just that life is suffering. Life has suffering, but life also has the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path you can follow to get there. You want to keep that possibility in mind. That helps teach you to delight in what you’re doing as you practice, even on days when the path doesn’t seem very …
- Allowing the Breath to Spread… As for the parts you can’t make comfortable, realize that part of the problem is that you add to the problem, you add to the pain, you add to the suffering. This right here gives you an important lesson in the Buddha’s teachings on dukkha, or suffering, stress. Some forms of suffering or stress are part of the three characteristics. In other …
- Holding On to the Path… Compassion has to be directed at suffering, which would require that there be people who are suffering. So your basic nature would require that there be suffering in the world, otherwise something wouldn’t feel right. You want to be compassionate but there’d be nobody to be compassionate for. But from the Buddha’s point of view, compassion is something you use both …
- The Buddha’s Relationship Advice… The Buddha asks him, “Where are you coming from?” He says, “From my son’s funeral, my only son.” And the Buddha says, “Yes, there’s a lot of suffering that comes from those who are dear.” And the man said, “Well, no, I don’t agree with that. There’s a lot of happiness that comes from those who are dear.” Here was …
- Analyzing Anger… That’s what ultimately leads to suffering. When you breathe in ignorance and talk to yourself in ignorance and hold perceptions and feelings in the mind in ignorance, you’re going to suffer. When we work with these things in breath meditation, we bring knowledge to them: seeing where they’re stressful, seeing where they’re not stressful; seeing where they’re helpful, skillful …
- Load next page...
