Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Wild Horses
    When the Buddha identified the cause of suffering, he didn’t define it as a blanket craving for things to be different from what they are. After all, the desire to develop skillful qualities, the desire to prevent unskillful qualities from arising, the desire to get rid of unskillful qualities that are there: Those are good desires. Those are actually part of the path … 
  3. Interconnectedness
     … They can be interconnected in a way that leads to suffering or in a way that leads to happiness, to freedom. It all depends on how we use those interconnections. So whether interconnectedness is going to be a good thing or a bad thing is up to us. As we meditate, we’re given the tools to make those connections a good thing so … 
  4. Alternative Conceptions
     … Some of the choices lead to suffering. Some of the choices lead to the end of suffering. It’s up to you. You want to have the imagination to realize that there are other choices. Think of Prince Siddhartha. When he wanted to leave home, his friends all said, “Oh it’s impossible, this idea of a happiness that’s not based on conditions … 
  5. Messaging Your Mind
     … This then becomes your laboratory for watching the mind, because after all, the big problem in life is that we want happiness, but we do things that cause suffering. Even though we think we’re doing things that will lead to happiness, they end up causing suffering all too many times. You want to be able to see that in action so that you … 
  6. What Should I Do?
     … So now, while you’re strong and have the opportunity, develop the qualities of mind you’ll need so that when things break down, you don’t have to suffer. When you’re not suffering, you’re in a much better position to see, in the present moment, what needs to be done. You’re much better at picking up the pieces when you … 
  7. The Not-Self Discourse
     … They can suffer dis-ease: There’s dis-ease in the body, dis-ease in your feelings, in your perceptions, in your thought fabrications, even in your consciousness. If these aggregates really were you or yours, you could totally control them. Now, this doesn’t mean you have no control at all. As the Buddha admitted in other places, the aggregates do offer some … 
  8. Up for the Challenge
     … You’re identifying with things, which means that there will be suffering, but it’s possible to let that go.” This is a big challenge, letting go of this tendency we have in the mind to want to identify with something. We hope for happiness and think one of the ways of finding happiness is to identify what will be happy and what we … 
  9. Dependable Friends
     … After all, as the Buddha said with regard to the four noble truths, suffering is something you want to comprehend, the cause of suffering is something you want to let go or abandon. Cessation is something you want to realize, to verify it for yourself. And then the path to the end of suffering is something you want to develop. So you have to … 
  10. Trustworthy Intentions
     … It’s a learning process we’re involved here, learning what we’re bringing to the present moment that’s shaping it, and what we’re doing in ignorance that’s causing suffering, what we’re bringing in ignorance that turns the present moment into a moment of suffering. This way, as you get clearer and clearer on what you bring, learning how to … 
  11. Practice in Dying Well
     … The Buddha taught about how the suffering that weighs the mind down is the unnecessary suffering we add to things. How are you going to know that? By watching the mind and seeing what you’re doing that’s weighing the mind down. So even though we’re focused on the breath, we’re here at the breath so that we can see our … 
  12. A Healthy Body Image
     … But you do have to be intelligent enough to realize that there’s suffering and it’s a big problem and here’s a path to put an end to suffering. And it’s rare that you can find such a path, so you want to make the most of it. All the great ajaans were people who had enough wisdom to realize that … 
  13. On Your Own
     … The only thing that’s really ordering us around is the fact that there is suffering and stress in our lives, and we’ve recognized that we really want to get rid of it, want to get beyond it. That’s the only thing that’s really forcing us. But what this also means is that when we’re out on our own outside … 
  14. Centered in the Body
     … Luang Puu Dune also talks about how the mind, flowing out, is the cause of suffering. So you want to be able to see the flow. Notice in that image that there’s only one person on one side to stand for external objects, but there’s a whole crowd on the other side. You’ve got lots and lots of hungers and thirsts … 
  15. What to Tolerate, What Not
     … But you don’t have to suffer from them. You can learn how to process them, you can learn how to handle them in such a way that even though there may be some pain or some unpleasantness, deep down inside the mind doesn’t have to suffer. That’s an important skill. It’s the skill that the Buddha teaches. As he says … 
  16. Harmless & Clearheaded
     … It’s meant to remind you that simply by being alive and having this body requires food, clothing, medicine, shelter—things that involve suffering for somebody. Even if you eat vegetarian food, the farmers, the people who transport the food suffer in getting it to you. It’s not easy work keeping people fed. The same goes for clothing and shelter and medicine. There … 
  17. Exercising Discernment
     … The craving for that kind of activity is a cause for suffering. The craving for no becoming means basically that you get a particular state and you don’t want it to change. You want to clamp down on everything just as it is. That’s a kind of craving too, and it can cause suffering as well. So those are the cravings the … 
  18. Pleasing to the Noble Ones
     … That’s when you’re going to be able to see things you never saw before—things that can make a real difference in how much suffering you’re creating and how much suffering you can stop. So settle in right here. The show has been showing itself for a long time, but as the Buddha said, you don’t have to know the … 
  19. A Sense of Yourself
     … How much conviction do you have in the Teaching? How much conviction do you have in this path that leads to the end of suffering? If you have trouble getting yourself to take on the path— or to get back on the path if you’ve fallen off—how can you talk to yourself to remind yourself that you do want to put an … 
  20. The Five Hindrances
     … We don’t see what suffering they’re causing. We just ride with them. The way to starve them is to develop appropriate attention. Look at these mind states simply as that—as mind states, part of a chain of cause and effect. See where these chains of cause and effect cause harm and suffering. Keep looking in this way to the point where … 
  21. Success by Approximation
     … And unlike the relationship between craving and suffering, the path isn’t the cause or the origination of the goal. It simply leads you there. These points are important to keep in mind because all too often there’s a tendency to think that you can get to awakening by cloning it. But awakening isn’t something you can clone. Instead, the Buddha has … 
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