Search results for: "Suffering"

  1. Page 88
  2. A Connoisseur of the Breath
     … You can keep in mind the fact that you want to put an end to suffering, or you can keep in mind a decision to rob a bank. And in either case, it’s mindfulness. So mindfulness becomes right or wrong depending on the task to which you apply it. There is such a thing as wrong mindfulness, keeping the wrong things in mind … 
  3. Feelings of Unworthiness
     … He’s going to suffer for a long time, but it’s not an endless suffering. There’s always a way out. Even Mara is supposed to eventually become a private Buddha. So this is a story in which even the bad guys get their redemption. You’re not nearly as bad as they are, so there’s hope for you as well. So … 
  4. Step Outside the World
     … These are the customs of people with defilements, the customs of people who suffer, stuck in suffering. I want to follow the customs of the noble ones: those who have gained release from suffering. The way they behave, the standards they set, those are the ways I want to follow.” And it was because he didn’t let himself get sucked into the ordinary … 
  5. Reflecting on the Requisites
     … And the Buddha says, “Try to develop the same association with physical food”—realizing that there’s been a lot of suffering going into bringing that food to you. If there’s meat, there’s an animal that had to die. Even if there’s no meat, there’s still suffering. The people who work—the farmers, farm workers, the people who work in … 
  6. Getting Out of Karmic Debt
     … that however skillful he was, if it wasn’t to the level of putting an end to suffering, he wouldn’t rest content. There was always more work to be done. And this relates to that fourth aspect of the customs of the noble ones, which is to delight in developing and to delight in abandoning. Of course, this means to delight in developing … 
  7. The Hall of Mirrors
     … In what ways do you look into the mirror that cause suffering? And what ways don’t cause suffering? That’s something you can really observe right here as it’s happening in your mind. So do your best to follow the path, to be generous, to observe the precepts, because these are good fabrications in the mind. They create a good environment for … 
  8. Into Position
     … As the Buddha said, the big problem in life is that we create unnecessary suffering through the things the mind does out of ignorance. But if we bring knowledge to those processes, we can turn that knowledge into a path to the end of suffering. That means that the insights are going to be about the mind as it’s acting in the present … 
  9. Concentration Work
     … And where you were is not the end of suffering. It’s immersed in suffering. So what are these selves inside that you’ve got to work with to get out of that suffering? There’s the self as the producer: the one who wants to create happiness and feels that it has the means to do that. There’s self as the consumer … 
  10. Complacency
     … You see that you’re suffering, and that other people are suffering, too. If you practice, you set a good example for them. But all of this comes down to heedfulness, the realization that your actions really do make a difference and you have to be careful about how you act. This is why it’s important not to let yourself get complacent in … 
  11. Three Levels of Effort
     … You say, “Oh my gosh, I’ve got that attachment and this attachment.” As you’re watching, you can see clearly that if you try to hold on to these things, you’re going to suffer. You can feel the tension in the breath, and you ask yourself, “Why would I want to hold on to those things?” So as you stay here, watch … 
  12. Questioning the Hindrances
     … What is the mind doing? What does it fabricate; what does it create? How are its fabrications skillful? How are they not? When you take that questioning attitude and combine it with the stillness, that’s when the mind really reaches breakthroughs in understanding, catches itself in action as it creates suffering. That’s one of the natures of the mind, that it creates … 
  13. Freedom & Security
     … that have freedom of choice, that qualities in mind really matter, and that the suffering that weighs on you is not totally beyond your control, you have the choice to put an end to that kind of suffering because it comes from your own actions. This discernment grows out of some very simple principles, one of which being, as the Buddha said, knowing that … 
  14. Lavish Goodwill
     … It points to a problem we all have, which is we’re creating suffering for ourselves. And it’s basically saying, “Look, this is how you can stop!” When you stop creating that suffering, you’re not left with just an empty, neutral state. You’re left with true happiness, which goes beyond abundant, beyond measureless. But to get there requires that you develop … 
  15. Safe Haven
     … They have their sufferings, too. When you’re suffering, sometimes you say, “I don’t care about other people’s suffering.” But as you’re able to give rise to greater sense of well-being inside, it’s a lot easy to sympathize with other people. So it’s important to have that sense of safe haven, a place where you can get away … 
  16. Gratitude, Goodwill & Generosity
     … thoughts of wishing for happiness for others, realizing you don’t really benefit from anybody’s suffering, so why wish suffering on other people? If you reflect on it for a minute, you realize that if everyone in the world could find true happiness within, we wouldn’t have all these problems. All the stupid things people do are because they don’t know … 
  17. More than Ordinary Heedfulness
     … We can put an end to suffering. We don’t have to keep coming back to suffer again and again and again. It lies within our power to find an escape. So here, heedfulness is combined with confidence that there is a way out. But at the same time, this confidence makes heedfulness very demanding. There are a lot of dangers in life that … 
  18. The Quality of Your Awareness
     … It’s same with the causes of suffering. They’re all happening. Just realize that’s what you’re looking for. You want to look in the movements of the mind that are impelled by craving of various kinds. Look in the areas where you find there’s a sense of being oppressed or burdened by something in the mind. How are you going … 
  19. The Patience of a Hunter
     … You’re here to see how the mind is creating unnecessary suffering for itself, so you’re trying to learn how to look for the signs of how it does that. And one of the signs is, as you get the mind still: Where is there a disturbance? How do you know there’s a disturbance? When something goes up and down in the … 
  20. Wisdom as a Tool
     … Is this going to help you understand suffering? Is it going to help you abandon craving? Will it help you develop the path? Those are the questions you want to ask. Ajaan Lee had a student, a woman who worked in the palace for many years. She had listened to many, many of the great sermon-givers in Bangkok in her time. When she … 
  21. The Cost of Happiness
     … They get very insensitive to the costs of the way they’re looking for happiness, so they keep on creating more and more suffering instead of the happiness they want. They can’t seem to get out of that vicious cycle. From the Buddha’s point of view, this is a problem for all of us. He talked about how, after his awakening, he … 
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