Search results for: "Suffering"
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- The Dhamma Without Price… He invited him to become a monk to practice to put an end to suffering. So the Sangha was established almost immediately after the Dhamma was first proclaimed and was shown to be effective. This shows that the Buddha was very far-sighted: that for the Dhamma to stay in the world would require a social institution of a particular kind. It was over …
- Pissing on Palaces… You hear a monkey call, and what you hear is its pain and suffering. It’s all around us. When the Buddha referred to his teaching of the Dhamma and the Vinaya, he’d use different words for how he taught. The Vinaya was something he formulated. In other words, he had to put together the rules for there to be a Vinaya. But …
- Learning & Respect… After all, what is the Buddha’s message? We’re suffering because of our actions—which means we’re doing something wrong. So we have to learn: What is it that we’re doing wrong? We come into this world, we have certain desires that shape our sense of who we are, the world we live in, and when those desires are fairly well …
- Horror Stories… What’s the cause of suffering, where is it found, what can we do to put an end to it, what is the end of suffering like? The potentials were all there in the present moment, simply that he hadn’t been in the right space, and hadn’t had the right supporting factors in mind to really observe carefully what was happening. If …
- Developing Discernment… And ultimately, of course, we want to see the arising and passing away of suffering, stress, so that we can understand how it arises, how it passes away. If you don’t see the arising and passing away, you can’t see the factors that go into causing them. When you can’t see the factors that cause them, you can’t let them …
- Resistance… putting an end to suffering. As the Buddha points out, in the course of training the mind you’ve got to learn to deal with skillful and unskillful thoughts — “skillful” meaning those that lead in the direction of putting an end to suffering; unskillful ones, those leading in the other direction. At least you’ve made it clear to yourself where you want to …
- Equanimity… There was a Dharma teacher one time who once said he didn’t want to be born into a world where there was no suffering because he wouldn’t be able to exert his compassion. You have to stop and think about that: It sounds noble, but then you wonder: Do you need other people to be suffering so that you can feel good …
- Unattractiveness… You want the mind to be in good shape as it’s going to age, because we can cause ourselves a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, if we try to fight aging. When death is actually coming, there can be a lot more suffering if we’re still attached to the body. The Buddha said this is one of our main reasons …
- A Post-goodness World?… What is skillful, what is unskillful? What is blameworthy, what is blameless? 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? And first-level answer to those questions is the three types of meritorious action: generosity, virtue, and the development of goodwill. As the Buddha …
- You’re Doing Something Wrong… These are the things that, if you do them in ignorance, you’re going to cause suffering. If you do them with knowledge, they can become part of the path. This connects with the basic message of the four noble truths, one that people often miss: The four noble truths are basically saying you’re doing something wrong. The fact that you’re suffering …
- A Clear, Calm Lake… As the Buddha said, “Birth is suffering.” You get this human body and it leaves you exposed all kinds of things. You start out totally helpless. If it weren’t for the help of other people—your parents or whoever raised you—you would have died very, very quickly. It’s because we have people looking after us that we’re able to survive …
- The Economy of Goodness… Knowledge, in this case, is knowledge of the Dhamma, the Dhamma that shows you the way to the end of suffering. In the Pali this is called, “having heard much.” In those days when you heard things, especially about the Dhamma, you would memorize it. If you look at the Buddha’s teachings, you’ll notice that they were delivered in a format that …
- Protection… When we’re with someone who’s going through problems in life, someone who’s suffering, we tend to open up wide and absorb everything they’re putting out, thinking that somehow we’re being helpful. Well, we aren’t helping them at all, and at the same time, we are leaving ourselves defenseless. So try to keep your awareness filling your body as …
- Well-being Despite It All… You can also begin to question the compulsion to need to go with the pain and suffering, as if you owe it to someone else. Say you’re suffering over what’s happened to somebody else and yet it feels selfish not to suffer with them. That’s not the case at all. When you’re in a good position, you’re in a …
- Mindfulness: Get with the Program… Because you remember, as the Buddha analyzed the causes of suffering in dependent co-arising, even before there’s contact at the senses, there’s a lot of stuff going on in the mind. How you approach that contact because of that stuff is going to make the difference between whether you suffer from it or not. So you have to remember, what are …
- An Hour of Bliss… mindfulness and alertness, motivated by the desire not to cause suffering. The motivation is important, so it’s good to think about it each time you meditate. You think about all the suffering in the world that comes from people acting on greed, people acting on aversion, people acting on delusion—and here you’ve got a mind that’s perfectly capable of acting …
- The Practice of Right View… But the Buddha didn’t get involved in those issues, didn’t answer any questions that would drag him into those issues, because he saw that they weren’t helpful in putting an end to suffering. Many people got frustrated with him because they couldn’t get a clear answer out of him on what they thought were the really important questions. They mentioned …
- Look at Yourself… When the Buddha talks about the cause of suffering, he doesn’t talk about the economy. He doesn’t talk about the weather. He talks about your craving, your ignorance. Where do these things happen? Right here. It’s easy to learn about the words, but it’s a lot more difficult to see exactly how craving arises, how it takes over, why you …
- The Buddha’s Encouragement… I might as well think about some sensual pleasures.” Or you start thinking about somebody who you really don’t like, and you’d like to see them suffer—that’s ill will. Or the mind gets drowsy, and you’re willing to drift into either sleep or delusion concentration, where it’s very quiet inside the mind but not very clear. You come …
- Lighter & Stronger… Even though it’s a useful tool, it can bring a lot of suffering if you’re attached to it. And you’re better off not being attached. Again, these perceptions have to be used together with all four of the noble truths. The truths teach you to get the mind into concentration, and one of the things you’ll learn as you begin …
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