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Cessation of suffering
ZendoLord84
Veteran
Isnt this just a fancy way of saying: dealing with the ups and downs of life........................?
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Imagine watching a movie, the character in the movie has good times and bad times. Do YOU have to deal with anything?
Of course not, your just watching the movie.
You only suffer if you believe you are the character.
Yes ...
... and of course a working and proven means is available.
The difference between spirituality and materialistic religion is the difference between internal and external modification.
Temple of the Buddha
and the Buddha's temple between the ears.
That's a good analogy, and it does seem that identifying with experience is at the root of the problem. It's a common theme in the suttas, for example the Bahiya Sutta, and this one: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.059.nymo.html
The cessation of suffering is a lot more than happiness of the current life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Nidānas#The_Twelve-fold_Chain
i like @Earthninja example of the character in a movie. very good example. i find cessation of suffering possible through realizing impermanence, and renunciation. body is impermanent, senses are illusion. happiness and pain(suffering) are equally sensual feelings and are therefore both impermanent and illusory. happiness leads to suffering by a person being attached to the sensual feeling of happiness; when happiness is removed one suffers. to renounce attachment to senses, and thereby clinging to neither happiness nor the suffering that follows, is the Middle Path and the road to Enlightenment. The tough part is fully renouncing attachment to happiness. (which is sensual in nature). The state we are left in from nonattachment to happiness nor pain is transcendental and fit for a Sage. (one who Knows)
No. It is more like: What is this about the ups and downs of life? Life just is and labelling things as good or bad can only lead to dukkha.
It is a fancy way of saying we relax into it all. Which is not the same things as "dealing" with things.
And which it is much easier to SAY we are going to relax than it is to actually DO so.
Habits of a lifetime (or of countless lifetimes, if you accept rebirth as a concept) ... are not going to be changed quickly. And our habits are to become caught up in our inner responses to things.
“Everything is always changing. If you relax into this truth, that is Enlightenment. If you resist, this is samsara (suffering).”
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, “What Makes You (Not) a Buddhist”
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, approximately, "It's not what's wrong with the world that scares people. What really scares them is that everything is all right."
Is change the only source of suffering though? I don't think it is.
Change happens. This is why the 'just sitting' of shikantanza is so initially frustrating or 'stoopid' as pointed out here:
Ups and downs and sideways and a monkey and body trying to gibber and run and fidget and go wild with the Dukkha ...
Well said, and I agree. I also can't help but think of that zen koan about the mountains becoming mountains again. Do we become the characters again only this time without experiencing any downside internally and externally?
Kind of... It's like duality is now seen as our tool instead of the other way around.
Some things cannot be described by words but not too many can be described without them either, right?
It always seems to come back to the Middle way.
Not sure why I take comfort in that.
Thanks @Earthninja - have added that one to my little book of inspirational quotes....
brad warner is awesome! he has a great book called "sit down and shut up"