Search results for: "Suffering"
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- Judicious vs. Judgmental… You need a sense of goodwill to be even interested in the question of trying to understand suffering, because you want to find an effective way of dealing with it. You want to be rid of suffering, to experience wellbeing, precisely because you have goodwill for yourself and for others. So as meditators we try to use that attitude, that desire, as a way …
- Settling In… You’ll see when that movement causes stress, when it causes suffering, and you also see how it’s not necessary. That’s the important part. We live with stress and suffering but something deep down inside tells us that it’s necessary: “This is the way things have to be.” Well, it’s simply the mind’s lack of skill. If it were …
- The Trick to Staying in Place… what are you doing that causes stress and suffering, and what might you do to bring an end to stress and suffering? So if we are going to see the four noble truths, we have to learn how to see cause and effect right in our immediate awareness. This is where it gets tricky because in a lot of areas of our life, we …
- Verbal Fabrication… We all look for happiness, and yet we’re causing suffering by our actions. We want to know why. There’s some ignorance there. You have to get the mind still, so that you can see where its ignorance is. As the Buddha pointed out, the suffering of the mind is not just a feeling of pain, it’s the clinging. It’s something …
- The Need for Goodwill… May they be freed from their suffering. May they not be deprived of the good fortune they have attained.” All of those are wishes, aspirations. Then there’s the fourth: “All beings are the owners of their actions, heir to their actions. Whatever they do, for good or evil, to that will they fall heir.” That’s a statement of fact. You can see …
- When Nothing’s Happening… You do want to realize the cessation of suffering, but you don’t do that by realizing the cessation of suffering. The realizing is a result. The cause of that result is that you develop the path. And in developing the path, you have to comprehend wherever there’s any stress or suffering that you’re doing—remembering that suffering is something you do …
- For What It’s Worth… As the Buddha pointed out, some of the things we do lead to suffering, some of the things we do could lead to the end of suffering. There’s an obvious value judgment there. We don’t just say, “Well, isn’t it interesting that this action leads to suffering, whereas that one doesn’t.” We’re going to take advantage of that knowledge …
- Hold on for All You’re Worth… We think about all the suffering there is in the world and the suffering we cause ourselves and other people through our own ignorance, the fact that our mind is not trained. And so we meditate. Empathetic joy: Where there’s a sense of well-being in the body, sense of well-being in the breath, we’re happy to maintain it. Some people …
- The Intelligent Heart… What can I do that will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? What can I do that would lead to my long-term suffering and harm? This question is wise not only because you’re asking the right people, but also because you see that your happiness depends on your actions, that long-term is possible, and that long-term is better …
- Capable… In other words, the defilements can get you to do things that are going to cause you to suffer. They’re not suffering at all. You’re the one who suffers, and yet you believe them. So change your allegiance. This requires the third basis for success, which is intent. You really give your full attention to what you’re doing, full attention to …
- To Comprehend Craving… This may be why we sometimes hear craving, the cause of suffering, defined as wanting things outside to be different from what they are—the implication being that if you accept things as they are, and are okay with things as they are, then you’re not going to suffer. All you need is some contentment, some patience, some equanimity. But when the Buddha …
- Purity of Heart… There’s always suffering involved in the process getting food to your mouth. The farmer suffers; the people who transport the goods suffer; there’s work involved in fixing the food. It’s just one, big hassle. So that’s why we have that contemplation every day: We eat food not for the purpose of beautifying, nor for fun, but simply to keep the …
- To Be Trustworthy… You read about all these people who are suffering from the lockdown, suffering from the quarantine. They can’t get to do the things they wanted to do. They’re shut up with a lot other people in small spaces in some cases. And the reason they’re suffering is that they lack skill. They look past the potentials they have inside, without realizing …
- Concentration Develops Right View… Yes, these movements of the mind for sensuality, becoming, and non-becoming really do create suffering. It may not be blatant suffering, it may just qualify as stress, but it’s the same sort of thing. And in getting more and more specific, right view becomes effective. You’ve learned actually where are the valleys and the canyons in your continental shelf, so that …
- Empathetic Joy… You have no ill-will for anyone, no desire to see anybody suffer. You don’t resent anyone’s happiness; and as for the things that you can’t help or can’t change, you learn to put them aside for the time being. All of this helps make for an easy break with all the issues of the day so that you can …
- The Buddha Teaches a Yakkha… The important opinions are the ones you can test as to what’s going to give rise to suffering, what’s not going to give rise to suffering. If you’re true in that test, then the results of the test enable you to really know the truth that matters. So truth is one quality that would help us prosper—and help the society …
- The Lightning Bolt… Does this Dhamma sound like it’s going to lead to the end of suffering or is it going to get you entangled, either in views or social responsibilities that will distract you from really focusing on the mind? You also take that Dhamma and you reflect on yourself: “What does this Dhamma tell me about my own suffering? What does it tell me …
- The Easy Way Out… the arrow of suffering, greed, aversion, delusion. We all want to find a way to take the arrow out. Some of us, of course, don’t realize that the arrow is there. We feel the pain but we think that it’s coming from something else. We grow up when we really realize that, okay, the arrow is here, and that we’re the …
- The Buddha’s Basic Therapy… For example, there’s the “blaming the victim” attitude toward kamma, saying, “Well, people are suffering right now, and the fact that they’re suffering means they deserved it.” That’s not the case; the Buddha never talks about anybody deserving anything. It’s just that there’s action and then there are results. The actual pleasure or pain, happiness or suffering, that we …
- Five Strengths… And what is the big issue? The fact that the mind is causing itself suffering, keeps creating these new worlds, and each world has its seeds of suffering within it. So you want to comprehend that. How does that happen? Why does that happen? When you trace it down, you see that there’s clinging, craving, and ignorance. These are the things that cause …
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