Search results for: "Suffering"

  1. Page 69
  2. Intent
     … And the good news here, of course, is that if you push yourself in the right direction or act in the right direction in the present moment, then when things come in from the past, you don’t have to suffer from them. You can develop the skills to handle them. The Buddha compares this to being a wealthy person. If a wealthy person … 
  3. Skills to Make You Free
     … When you have no basis for making those kinds of decisions, you’re left defenseless, you’re left suffering. It’s because of this that I’m always amazed at people who say the Buddha doesn’t teach free will—that he teaches that everything is determined—because he was so opposed to that view. The other thing that I find amazing is that … 
  4. Heedfulness
     … After all, the Buddha says that the reason we’re suffering is because of things we’re doing in the present moment in the mind, and that’s much more interesting than the body. We suffer because of our craving, we suffer in our clinging, and those are things you can see. Sometimes you cling to your sense of the body. Sometimes you cling … 
  5. Consistently on the Path
    In the Buddha’s analysis of the causes leading to suffering, there are three things that follow immediately on ignorance: bodily fabrication, the way you breathe; verbal fabrication, the way you talk to yourself; and mental fabrication, the feelings you focus on and the perceptions you hold in mind, the images you give to yourself of the world and of yourself. As long as … 
  6. Dwelling in Emptiness
    Ajaan Suwat once said that, as a rule of thumb in your meditation, you can recognize happiness as the stillness, and suffering as the areas that are still disturbed. If you want to see the first noble truth, if you want to see the three characteristics, look at where there’s disturbance. In fact, one of the Buddha’s main teachings on emptiness is … 
  7. Rebirth & Not-Self
     … We end up creating a lot of suffering around the aggregates, even though we use them to look for pleasure. We get some pleasure out of them. The Buddha doesn’t deny that. He said that if it weren’t for the pleasures offered by the aggregates, we wouldn’t fall for them. But the extent to which we cling to them—and often … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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