Search results for: "Suffering"

  1. Page 79
  2. Not-self, Not No Self
     … There are a lot of things that we lay claim to that are actually causing us suffering. They’re not total suffering. There’s some pleasure there, which is why we lay claim to them, but sometimes the pleasure is simply the pleasure of habit. The things you’ve laid claim to in the past, you just keep laying claim to them now. The … 
  3. The Prison Break
     … We’re suffering. Otherwise, why would we search for happiness? Why would we need it? As he said, we’re born into suffering. If you survive birth, you don’t just lie there happily. You cry. You squirm around. And for the rest of your life there’s a lot of squirming. There’s a basic sense of discontent we all have. What the … 
  4. Everything’s Right There
    We focus on the breath because when the mind is focused on the breath, everything you need to know to put an end to suffering is right here. You’re at the right spot. It’s simply a matter of getting used to it, realizing the potentials all around you right here, both in the body and in the mind. In the body, you … 
  5. Radiating Goodness
     … He says, the way out of suffering comes from conviction. There’s a description of what’s called transcendent dependent co-arising. It’s the list of the factors in the mind that leads you to release. They begin with ignorance leading to suffering, and from suffering they go to conviction. There is stress, dis-ease in life. But the way out is to … 
  6. What You Bring to the Moment
     … Dependent co-arising—the Buddha’s map of how and why we suffer—states that contact comes after a lot of other conditions. Intention comes before contact. The act of attention comes before contact. We’re predisposed to look at certain things and to ignore others. So of course our perceptions are going to be skewed. One of the things I noticed when I … 
  7. Many Desires, Many Selves
    As we practice, we try to focus our desires on one thing—the ending of suffering—but the nature of the mind is that it desires tend to head off in lots of different directions, like the man who jumped on a horse and rode off in four directions all at once. Our desires to pull us here, pull us there, and we try … 
  8. The Arrows of Emotion
     … You have to learn how to watch the mind so that you can finally figure out: “Why am I doing this? It’s painful, it’s piling more and more suffering on top,” until you can finally see: “Oh, this is why.” This is one of the reasons why, when the Buddha was going to teach Rahula breath meditation, he didn’t start out … 
  9. The Thinking Cure
     … What are the values that lie behind them? What’s your understanding of suffering and the end of suffering that lies behind how you do things? Make sure to straighten out your thoughts. Once you straighten out your thoughts, realizing how suffering comes about and how you can put an end to it, you’ve got everything you need to put an end to … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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.
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. Awakening Is in the Details
     … But you can trust yourself when you say, “I want to put an end to suffering. I want to stop doing the things that cause suffering.” That’s an intention you can trust. Try to see where to look for that opening. As I’ve said many times, the mind is a complex system, and the nature of complex systems is that they have … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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