Search results for: "Suffering"

  1. Page 89
  2. Borrowed Goods
    We read about how the clinging-aggregates are suffering, so our first reaction is that we want to get rid of them, but it doesn’t work. Remember the Buddha’s statement that our duty with regard to them is to comprehend them. You get rid of craving, but with the clinging-aggregates you’ve got to know them, really understand them, to the … 
  3. Don’t Objectify
     … You’re giving them an example as to how to act, because they’ve been doing the same kind of activity, too, and they are suffering just as you are. You show them that it’s possible that they don’t have to suffer. So learn to look at things as activities, as actions. And you start right here: You’ve got the activity … 
  4. Against Your Type
     … the types of action that gives rise to suffering, the types of action that can put an end to suffering. Dependent co- arising, the four noble truths, emptiness: All the really big basic teachings are questions of action and result. That’s how the Buddha wants us to look at things. That’s what right view is all about: seeing things in terms of … 
  5. A Full Range of Archery Skills
     … This the Buddha says, corresponds to piercing ignorance, where you really see how you’re causing unnecessary suffering. You see that the problem lies inside, and you can see precisely which movements of the mind are causing the suffering. You understand what their allure is, but also see their drawbacks, so you can gain some escape from them. So remember, as we’re meditating … 
  6. One Thing Clear Through
     … This fits in with another principle that underlies discernment, which is the basic question of discernment, “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term harm and suffering?” Realizing that the long-term is really worth it, and it’s going to have to come from your actions … 
  7. A Sense of Direction
     … You don’t think about how much you want them to suffer, because you don’t gain anything from their suffering. In fact, the more they suffer, the more unskillfully they’ll probably behave. So for your own well-being and the well-being of others, it’s good to develop thoughts of goodwill, wishing that they might find the causes for true happiness … 
  8. What You’re Responsible For
     … Our responsibilities are the state of the mind, what the mind says to itself, how it creates suffering for itself, or how it can learn not to create suffering for itself. This means that, as you’re sitting here, there are certain things even within you that you’re not going to be responsible for right now. It’s a cold, wet night, but … 
  9. A Rare Gift
     … Once you’re not weighing the mind down with problems all the time, not weighing it down with stress and suffering, you find that it can bear the affairs of the world a lot more easily. You can see what needs to be done, what really has to be done, and you can do it, without the sense that you’re already overburdened, thinking … 
  10. Defabricating Anger
    The Buddha says that we suffer from our ignorance, and the first thing we’re ignorant of is the extent to which we fabricate the present moment. We take the raw material coming in from our past karma, and then we turn it into an actual experience of the present moment. We that with three activities called fabrication: bodily fabrication, the in-and-out … 
  11. Big Things in Little Things
     … All those worlds of suffering, all those worlds of delusion come from the fact that we’re deluded right here. So the only way to end our delusion is to look very carefully right here, try to solve the problem right here. So even though right here may seem like a very small place, and the things we’re focusing on may seem very … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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