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NO AJAHNCHAH ---Reflections---- |
110. We want to take the easy way, but if there's no suffering, there's no wisdom. To be ripe for wisdom, you must really break down and cry in your practice at least three times. 111. We don't
become monk or nuns to eat well, sleep well, and be very comfortable, but
to know suffering : 112. In truth, happiness is suffering in disguise but in such a subtle from that you don't see it. If you cling to happiness, it's the same as clinging to suffering, but you don't realize it. When you hold onto happiness, it's impossible to throw away the inherent suffering. They're inseparable like that. Thus the Buddha taught us to know suffering, see it as the inherent harm in happiness, to see them as equal. So be careful! When happiness arise, don't be overjoyed, and don't get carried away. When suffering comes, don't despair, don't lose yourself in it. See that they have the same equal value. 113. When suffering arises, understand that there is no one to accept it. If you think suffering is yours, happiness is yours, you will not be able to find peace. 114. People who suffer will accordingly gain wisdom. If we don't suffer, we don't contemplate. If we don’t contemplate, no wisdom is born. Without wisdom, we don’t know. Not knowing, we can't get free of suffering - that's just the way it is. Therefore we must train and endure in our practice. When we then reflect on world, we won't be afraid like before. It isn't that the Buddha was enlightened outside of the world but within the world itself. 115. Sensual indulgence and self-mortification are two paths the Buddha discouraged. This is just happiness and suffering. We imagine we have freed ourselves from suffering, but we haven't. We just cling to happiness, If we cling to happiness, we will suffer again. That's the way it is, but people think contrarily. 116. People have suffering in one place, so they go somewhere else. When suffering arise there, they run off again. They think they're running away from suffering, but they 're not. Suffering goes with them. They carry suffering around without knowing it. If we don’t know suffering, then we can't know the cause of suffering, then we can't know cessation of suffering. There's no way we can escape it. 117. Students today have much more knowledge that students of previous times. They have got all the things they need, everything is more convenient. But they also have a lot more suffering and confusion than before. Why is this? 118. Do not be a bodhisatta ; do not an arahant ; do not be anything at all. If you are a bodhisatta, yo will suffer; if you are an arahant, you will suffer ; if you are anything at all, you will suffer. 119. Love and hate are both suffering, because of desire. Wanting is suffering; wanting not to have is suffering, Even if you get what you want, it's still suffering because once you've got it, you then live in the fear of losing it. You then live in the fear of losing it. How are you going to live happily with fear? 120. When you're angry, does it feel good or bad? If it feel so bad, then why don’t you throw it away? Why bother to keep it? How can you say that you are wise and intelligent if you hold onto such things? Some days the mind can even cause the whole family to quarrel or cause you to cry all night. And, yet, we still continue to get angry and suffering. If you see the suffering of anger, then just throw it away. If you don’t throw it away, it will go on causing suffering indefinitely, with no chance of respite. The world of unsatisfactory existence is like this. If we know the way it is, we can solve the problem. 121. A woman wanted to know how to deal with anger. I asked her when anger arose whose anger it was. She said it was hers. Well, if it really was her anger, then she should be able to tell it to go away, shouldn't she? But it really isn't hers to command. Holding onto anger as a personal possession will cause suffering. If anger really belonged to us, it would have to obey us. If it doesn't obey us, that means it's only a deception. Don’t fall for it. Whether the mind is happy or sad, don’t fall for it. It's all a deception. 122. If you see certainly in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer. 123. The Buddha is always here teaching. See for yourself. There is happiness and there is unhappiness. There is pleasure and there is pain. And they're always here. When you understand the nature of pleasure and pain, there you see the Buddha, there you see the Dhamma. The Buddha is not apart from them. 124. Contemplating them together, we see that happiness and suffering are equal, just as hot and cold are. The heat from a fire can burn us to death. Neither is greater. It's the same with happiness and suffering. In the world, everyone desires happiness and no one desires suffering. Nibbana has no desire. There is only tranquility. | ||
V.Heart and Mind | VI.Impermanence | VII.Kamma | VIII.Meditation Practise | IX.Non-Self X.Peace | XI.Suffering | XII.Teacher | XIII.Understanding and Wisdom | XIV.Virtue XV.Miscellaneous | Invitation | Glossary
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