Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Freedom through Restraint
     … They’re imposed simply by the fact that we’re suffering and we want to find a way out. They’re the duties of the four noble truths: to comprehend the suffering, to abandon the cause, to realize the cessation of suffering by developing the path. So, in line with those duties, we’re trying to develop the path and to abandon everything that … 
  3. Thoughts About Thinking
     … There’s suffering in here, and there’s something causing the suffering. The Buddha gives you some indications. He doesn’t just say, “There is suffering.” He says what it is: clinging to the five aggregates. Okay, what are those aggregates? How many types of clinging are there? You can read about them in the books, but how do you actually experience them yourself … 
  4. Always Looking Inside
     … He was explaining to Ajaan Fuang his meditation technique, which was that whatever he was focused on, he tried to see it as impermanent, suffering, and not-self. Again Ajaan Fuang’s comment was to turn around to look at who’s doing the commenting, who’s saying that things are impermanent, stressful, and not self. That’s the troublemaker. So this is what … 
  5. Ready for Death
     … It was that wish that motivated the young prince, back 2,600 years ago, to find some way of not suffering from aging, illness, and death. You can’t deny them as facts – they happen again and again and again. But his question was, “Is there a way to experience them and not suffer? And even better, is there a way not to have … 
  6. Mastery
     … It turns out that the stress and suffering for which you’re responsible are the things you can actually change. And not only that: Those are the only forms of stress and suffering that really weigh on the heart. Once the stress and suffering that comes from craving is done with, then the stresses of the world don’t weigh on the heart at … 
  7. What Are You Doing in the Present?
     … to find the end of suffering, to find an end to the way we cause ourselves unnecessary suffering. That’s the work we do. As we chanted in the Dhammacakkappavatana Sutta just now, we have our duties in the present moment. There’s a duty to comprehend suffering, the duty to abandon its cause, to realizes its cessation, and we do that by developing … 
  8. Insight from Jhana
    Insight from Jhana September 17, 2012 We meditate so that we can put an end to the sufferings in our lives, and particularly to the unnecessary sufferings that the mind imposes on itself. And, as it turns out, those are the sufferings that weigh down the mind. Without those sufferings, there’s no problem. So how does the meditation do this? We make the … 
  9. Choices Now & at Death
     … There are some times when you do something bad in this lifetime but you don’t suffer in the next, and vice versa: You do good things in this lifetime and yet you suffer in the next, because the kamma you’re dealing with is not just the kamma in this lifetime, but also your kamma from the past. Where you go also has … 
  10. The Practice is Wherever There’s Mindfulness
     … What this means is that when you find yourself suffering, you always have to look back: “Okay, what am I doing? What assumptions am I bringing to this situation that are making me suffer right now?” Realize that those assumptions are not necessary—that there is always something skillful you can do to stop the unnecessary suffering. There’s a skillful way you could … 
  11. The Equanimity of a Winner
     … On the one hand, he never said that the path to the end of suffering was going to be unstressful. He admits that the practice of abandoning unskillful qualities and developing skillful qualities will cause stress. It’ll be painful sometimes. But he says that even if it involves having tears running down your cheeks, you still want to stick with the practice. There … 
  12. Rivers of Craving
     … what he was doing that was causing suffering. There is this tendency of the mind to follow its cravings, which is what causes suffering. As long as the mind is weak, it gives in to whatever impulse comes in if it hasn’t been trained. So part of the training is to strengthen the mind, so that even when the body is tired, even … 
  13. Using Right Resolve Rightly
     … Dwelling on those things is not going to solve the issue of the pain and suffering you cause for yourself. The issue is solved by creating a sense of well-being inside from which you can then look at the present moment and gain some insight into how the mind creates unnecessary suffering and how that unnecessary suffering is the only thing that really … 
  14. Wearing the Breath
     … After all, where is the source of suffering? The Buddha calls it the origination of suffering. When he uses the word origination, one, it means we have to look for the cause and, two, we usually have to look for the cause in the mind. So, we’re trying to understand our own minds. If you can understand your own mind, then you don … 
  15. Magha Puja: Showing Respect with the Practice
     … to practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma—in other words, to practice training the mind so that it develops dispassion for the things that lead to suffering and can find true happiness. After all, that’s why the Buddha taught. He spent all those years looking for the Dhamma, not only for his own sake, but also so that other people could … 
  16. As Days & Nights Fly Past, Fly Past
     … To what extent do you see that you’re creating suffering that you don’t have to? That’s the big question. When the Buddha set out the four noble truths he wasn’t simply setting out four interesting facts about an interesting topic—suffering and stress. He was pointing out the fact that this is the big issue in life—the suffering and … 
  17. Facing Pain Straight On
     … How does the mind create pain? How does it create suffering? Then you’ll find that the insights that arise are very productive in giving rise to a happiness that lies beyond the four noble truths, totally unconditioned. Because that’s the earnest question in life: Why do we create suffering when we want happiness? And how can we find a happiness that we … 
  18. Good Fundamentals
     … The more experienced the people are in terms of generosity, virtue, conviction, and discernment—particularly discernment into how to put an end to suffering—the more you benefit. What it comes down to is the Buddha’s realization that the Big Problem in life is the suffering we cause, and yet we don’t have to. Why do we cause that suffering? It’s … 
  19. Metta Isn’t Love
     … That way, your goodwill doesn’t have to create suffering. After all, if we don’t have equanimity to back up our goodwill, we’re going to suffer. We want beings to be happy, and look what they do: all kinds of things that are the opposite of the causes for happiness. Then there are those who are already happy, and look at what … 
  20. All About Change
     … When the Buddha talks about the origination of suffering, he doesn’t mean things outside causing you to suffer. Society may be in a mess right now, people can be abusive, threatening, totally crazy, but that’s not the source of the suffering. The source of the suffering, the Buddha says, is inside the mind itself. That’s what he means by origination. It … 
  21. Four Determinations
     … This is probably why that Zen master said that “The Great Way is not difficult for those with no preferences.” He wasn’t saying that you don’t prefer the end of suffering to suffering. You do prefer the end of suffering. It’s simply that you look at what’s required to put an end to suffering and see that some things will … 
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