Search results for: "Suffering"
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- The Buddha’s Last Word… I’m here to look at my actions, to learn how to read the results of my actions so that I can figure out what’s wrong and I can change them.” This is why so much of the training is self-training, because you’re the only one who knows that you’re suffering, how much you’re suffering, where you’re suffering …
- Skill… There are some actions you do that will lead to stress and suffering; other actions will lead to the end of suffering. Those are the basic terms of the four noble truths right there. That’s what you keep in mind as you’re practicing. It’s called appropriate attention. The Buddha once said that he didn’t see any other factor in the …
- Change Your Mind… You realize that if you don’t give rise to skillful qualities, you’re going to suffer. You don’t want to suffer, so you exert the appropriate effort. You generate the desire to do this well. And when you do this, the mind can settle down. The next stage in developing the establishing of mindfulness is to be aware of the process of …
- Brahmaviharas at the Breath… The desire to see somebody else suffer: Part of the mind may say, “It’ll be good for them, teach them a lesson,” but how many people really respond well to suffering, to pain? The usual reaction is to find a scapegoat outside. That doesn’t help. What you want is for them to understand the causes for true happiness and be willing and …
- Confident, Steadfast, Resolute… No matter what happens—good or bad—you’ll need mindfulness to handle it well, concentration to not be upset by events, and discernment to see how you don’t have to suffer. So tell yourself: When you meditate you’re developing the qualities that are most protective for the mind and for your true well-being. That should counteract the idea that worrying …
- Elemental Normalcy… Well, the same principle applies to a lot of the other suffering, or potential sufferings, in life. If you don’t dramatize them, if you don’t make big deals out of them, but learn to watch them as normal, you’ll come out safe.
- Self-Reliance… If we didn’t have a Buddha within living memory, how would we have any idea that there could be an end to suffering? Or that human beings could find that path and follow that path on their own? That’s the external principle. The internal principle is appropriate attention: learning to look at things in terms of the four noble truths, i.e …
- Strength of Conviction… And they have an impact on whether you’re going to experience happiness or suffering. So you’ve got to be very careful about your views: how you talk to yourself. This is one of the huge ways in which we make ourselves suffer. Our cravings, are basically our “selves” talking to our “selves.” As the Buddha said, we go around with craving as …
- You Are Not Redundant… Bewilderment is our normal state when we’re faced with suffering and pain, and those teachers were basically saying, “If you’re suffering right now, there’s nothing you can do about it.” But no. One of the Buddha’s most basic teachings is that, yes, there is something you can do about it. That’s what the four noble truths are all about …
- Skillful Distress… Why it is that we want happiness but we’re causing ourselves suffering? We feed on things, and we think the feeding is going to give us happiness. Then we find that we’re suffering because we feed. How do we feed in a way that gets us on the path to a place where we don’t have to feed? That’s a …
- Three Types of Equanimity… And there are times when no matter how much goodwill you have for somebody, there’s still going to be some suffering. That’s when you have to develop equanimity, to realize that certain things simply will not go in line with your wishes. You want things to go well, both for yourself and for others, but you run up against a brick wall …
- Firm in Your Intent… You’re trying to look to see what the mind is doing that’s causing suffering, which is why you have to stick with the duties of the four noble truths. Wherever you recognize the clinging you’re engaging in, you try to comprehend it. Exactly how is the act of clinging the same thing as suffering? As for the craving that gives rise …
- The Mirror Inside… Well, what’s coming into your senses all at once is not causing you to suffer. What’s causing you to suffer is your own actions, which is why the Buddha says to focus there—on what you’re doing. Be alert to what you’re doing. When engaged in evaluation—vicāra—you’re evaluating your actions. When you’re moving into what the …
- Hope… In addition, the Pali language has ways of formulating injunctions where you express a hope: “May this happen, may this not happen.” In fact, the whole purpose of the teaching is to give rise to hope that, whatever you’re suffering from, there is a way out of that suffering and there’s a way to put a total end to all suffering. So …
- Don’t Get Discouraged… We all want happiness but we’ve got to face these things in life, and we have to learn how to deal with them in such a way that we don’t suffer. That’s what the meditation is for. As the phrase goes, “Pain is normal but the suffering is optional.” Physical pain is going to be there for everybody, in one way …
- At Home in Jhana… You haven’t understood properly how you take the raw materials you have here and create suffering out of them. And you haven’t realized that you don’t need to create that suffering. You can create a sense of ease and well-being instead. You take these raw materials you’ve been carrying around as loads and you place them down in the …
- Fear of the Truth… This is why comprehending suffering, letting go of the cause of suffering, requires developing the path—because this is not just a path. It’s also a fortress, a safe place, a strong place. When the mind is well-endowed with mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, it really can handle these things. Greed comes up and you can see right through it. Anger comes up …
- Responsible for Your Actions… Wouldn’t you rather be responsible, in light of the impact that our actions actually have on our own happiness and the happiness of the people around us? If we look for happiness that’s dependent on making other people suffer, it’s not going to last. If you want happiness that lasts, you’ve got to take responsibility both for the things you …
- Neither Here nor There… The cravings, of course, are the cause of suffering. They’re precisely what we need to study if we want to get past suffering. We have to understand cravings so that we can abandon them. If you look simply at the suffering without going to craving and understanding it, you’ll never get done with it. You’ve got to attack the problem at …
- Questioning Your Unconscious Actions… In other words, when they’re unskillful, when they’re done through ignorance, they’ve got you primed to suffer no matter what comes to your senses—no matter what you see or hear or smell or taste or touch or think about. Once these little decisions are in place, they’ve got you primed to suffer. Now, if you can bring awareness and …
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