If you can relate to your present suffering with some kind of sense of it being your path, then the suffering itself becomes your practice. Just being able to let go of negative thinking and struggling with the pain and being more simple about it, that already means you are making the suffering into the path. Continue reading Pain and suffering as practice & how our thoughts can increase the suffering of pain
It’s not a kind of intellectual understanding where we work out this is happiness because it’s not suffering – we know it when we recognise our True Nature… Continue reading How will we recognise the bliss of Awakening when we have nothing to compare it to?
We have to be prepared to just go on being kind and compassionate forever. This is always going to be needed even though we cannot make others happy. We are limited at present because we do not really believe we have any power to help much. But the Buddhas say our power to help others is limitless. We don’t believe it because we don’t understand the true nature of our being, or of others… Continue reading How do I wish all beings to be happy when there is unavoidable suffering in the world?
If you are awake, attentive and enjoying a sense pleasure then it is not suffering is it? As soon as you start continuing to crave the sense pleasure to the point that it’s becoming a problem – it’s suffering… Continue reading Is refraining from indulging in sense pleasures such as snack food, a good practice?
The essence of the actual feeling of suffering or pain (beyond all the conditioned thoughts and feelings that are associated with it) is nothing other than the fundamental quality of sensitivity that is the Indestructible Heart Essence. When we touch this we touch something that is profoundly sacred. Continue reading How does our experience of Dukkha – unsatisfactoriness & Suffering – connect to our innate quality of Sensitivity?
This is such an important question for so many people. I think the problem arises from approaching the whole thing from a Western cultural point of view. We value a sense of social responsibility and abhor hypocrisy and self-deception. We tend to believe in just this one life we are in now and that we have to solve the world’s problems… Continue reading What to do when we respond to the suffering of others with feeling powerless and guilty?
You don’t actually need to maintain that pattern. Every little inch of it could be given a little nudge and a push and somehow, at some point, it could all collapse and it could be a new day, a new life, a new you and a whole different feel about life and about everything. It does happen in the end. Continue reading What if Reflecting on Impermanence & Death Feels Hopeless?
How do you feel when you open yourself to the suffering of others? Does it leave you with a hopeless feeling? Do you find yourself closing off very quickly? Since others are always going to suffer is it possible ever to experience complete joy and freedom from suffering? The Buddha, the Awakened One, said it was… Continue reading How do you feel when you open to the suffering of others?
We need to discover what is real – there is a path that leads to discovery of what’s real. Samsara is hard! But if you are on the path there is a sense that even the suffering is somehow a sign of deepening understanding. Without the suffering we might think it was all going to be easy. The suffering tells us that it’s not easy and that we need patience and determination. We need to slow down, relax and reflect gently. Continue reading What is Real? The Path to Truth & Lasting Happiness
If you can relate to your present suffering with some kind of sense of it being your path, then the suffering itself becomes your practice. Just being able to let go of negative thinking and struggling with the pain and being more simple about it, that already means you are making the suffering into the path. Continue reading Meditating with physical pain – how can we make pain our practice?
