Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Clinging
    The Buddha identified suffering as the five clinging-aggregates. And the problem is not the aggregates. It’s the clinging. It comes in four forms: clinging to sensuality, to views, to habits and practices, and to doctrines of the self. But regardless of the form, you can feel it physically, as a tightening in the breath energy in the body. Now, the physical feeling … 
  3. Honesty
     … A lot of the practice is a question of skill in how to act in such a way that avoids suffering, and then finally cuts through the causes of suffering. That requires a lot of precision, a lot of dedication, all the qualities that you need in developing a skill. So when you come to the practice—say you’re going to focus on … 
  4. What You Don’t Like About Yourself
     … The Buddha, though, had a further use for meditation and that’s to figure out why it is that we create suffering. Even though we want very much not to create suffering, we keep doing it again and again. So the meditation is part of a path to the end of that suffering. And the two most important elements in the path are, on … 
  5. Gratification
     … So when aging, illness, separation, and death are sure to happen, what skills do you need so you don’t suffer from these things? We generally assume the suffering there is inevitable, that there’s nothing much you can do about it. But the Buddha’s great discovery was that even though these things happen, you don’t have to suffer from them. That … 
  6. Training in Right Resolve
     … So let the Dhamma stretch you, and let it challenge you in the areas where you think you’re most right, because, remember, if you were 100 percent right already, there’d be no suffering. Wherever there’s suffering, it’s a sign that your rightness is not right enough. So take the teachings of someone who was not suffering anymore, and practice them … 
  7. Stillness & Clear Seeing
     … When we look at suffering, we don’t blame other people for it, we don’t blame things outside. We take responsibility for it. That’s a noble act right there. When we look at the causes of suffering, we see that the things that we crave, the things that we desire the most, are often the things that cause the most suffering. So … 
  8. The Rewards of Cleanliness
     … Discernment is seeing the connection between the cause of suffering and the suffering itself. They do arise together; they pass away together. The cause of suffering is something that the mind does. Suffering is something that it feels. When you see the connection, you see that whatever the mind is doing is coming out of ignorance. You do your best to put all your … 
  9. Wisdom Through Doing
     … It is possible to put an end, a total end, to suffering. A lot of people just dismiss that as a possibility. But the Buddha’s purpose in teaching was to open it up again. When you look at what you’re doing and the results you’re getting, how do they measure up against the total end of suffering? What could you do … 
  10. Take Good Aim
     … The question of putting an end to your suffering would have to be put off to the side, because you’d have to serve some other purpose. But with the universe being meaningless, you can give meaning to your life by saying, “I’m going to put an end to suffering.” Then you can define yourself around that. Make that your desire, because it … 
  11. Positive Capability
     … Why is the mind suffering? What is it doing to make itself suffer? How can it stop? This takes the four noble truths as questions. The Buddha points our attention in the right direction. We’re looking for the cause of suffering. We’re not going to be looking outside. We have to look inside. We have to look at our cravings, see why … 
  12. Heedful of What’s Precious
     … You want to develop the path so that you can comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, and realize the cessation of suffering. So be very protective of this path. Do your best to keep nurturing it. What this means is that when skillful mental qualities arise in the mind, you don’t just sit there watching them come and watching them go. You watch them … 
  13. Me, Me, Me
     … When he talks about suffering and the cause of suffering, he starts out with just those two principles: suffering and its cause. But as he traces them out, they get into dependent co-arising, which is very complex. Still, it’s complex for a purpose. He’s not just showing off how subtle he can be. He wants to show how he took his … 
  14. Harmlessness
     … Compassion is what you feel when you have goodwill for someone else but you see that they’re suffering or they’re acting on the causes that would lead to suffering. This can apply to yourself as well as to other people. So it follows that ill will is a general desire to see someone suffer or to do things that will cause suffering … 
  15. The Not-Self Discourse
     … So these are perceptions that you apply to foster a sense of dispassion for the purpose of putting an end to suffering. If you had no idea that dispassion would lead to the end of suffering, you’d want to hold on. This is probably why all of us are still holding on to our aggregates, one way or another. You don’t really … 
  16. Listening to the True Dhamma
     … In other words, you think of the problems you have in suffering and you ask yourself, “How does this talk apply to my suffering? How can it help me understand why I’m suffering and how I can put an end to it?” As the Buddha says, you want to listen with respect. There’s one passage where he talks about five factors that … 
  17. Guarding the Truth
     … But if you try to understand why you suffer from the world, you actually gain awakening and put an end to suffering. So, as you mediate, you’re looking at the processes, you’re looking at the way the mind filters things and shapes things. This is why, when we meditate, we close our eyes. We’re not looking at the world outside. We … 
  18. Doubts
     … In the same way, you’re suffering. Questions having to do with anything aside from the question of how to stop suffering are, at best, simply a waste of time. At worst, they get you involved in issues that block the path. So you have to learn how to think. Which thoughts are worth thinking about? Which doubts are worth looking into? Which ones … 
  19. Right but Wrong
     … People would state their view and add, “Only this is true, everything else is worthless.” That statement right there is simply a challenge: “Anyone want to argue?” But when the Buddha stated the definition of suffering, its origination, its cessation, the path to its cessation, he’s basically saying, “Here, do this, and you’ll be able to put an end to suffering.” It … 
  20. Consciousness, Name, & Form
     … He’s simply saying that if you want to put an end to suffering, this is what you’ve got to do. First, you get the mind really still, and to do that, you have to see things on their own terms: as events in the body, events in the mind—what the Buddha calls name and form on the one hand, and consciousness … 
  21. Strength in Humor
     … Which means that we’re not only victims of suffering, but also perpetrators of suffering, because of our weakness. So, we have to strengthen the mind so that, on the one hand, we know how to live in the world and not get in the line of fire, and, on the other, so that when we’re dealing with other people and we’re … 
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