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Re: Why does 1st Noble Truth only list Dukkha?
Seems a great question. Our response to the pain of Dukkha is to somehow struggle to end that feeling. And thus arises the thirst "Tanha" for sense pleasures and I suppose aversion to whatever is blocking those pleasures. I don't think sense pleasures are wrong in themselves they just happen to be a failed strategy ultimately to free ourselves from Dukkha. I think they do work to some extent day by day we have our sense pleasures as a part of our "lives". Thus we stay in samsara. None of the things we thirst for can stay for long. Birth, aging, corruption, death; this too shall pass. Until cessation, where we let go of grasping. Non-self comes in I believe in that whatever self we conceive of is wrong if it is a passing impermanent self which we try to grasp to. It's controversial in Buddhism if there is an authentic (non suffering) self remaining after the process of the noble eightfold path is complete.
Jeffrey
Why does 1st Noble Truth only list Dukkha?
I only see 4 Noble Truths list Dukkha, it's origin, cessation, and path toward cessation.
Where is the inclusion of anicca(non-permanence)/anatta(non-self)?
Re: The nature of jealousy
Jealousy is part of the tangle known as fundamental darkness. (Ignorance, arrogance, jealousy, anger, fear, hate....) Fundamental darkness is the ignorance of the totality, of the great worth of all life, of being. It is denying the potential of the self and of others. An aspect of fundamental darkness is the belief that happiness comes from outside oneself.
One step in rising above this Fundamental Darkness is giving oneself permission to be happy.
Allow yourself to be happy. Allow yourself to enable other to be happy. Instead of practicing jealousy, we must practice gratitude. With jealousy, the flower of life withers. But with gratitude, the flower of life blossoms.
Peace to All
Lionduck
Re: The stories we tell ourselves
This morning I find that I am not just the sum total of what I have experienced, thought, read and dreamt… it is all running and melting together like a Salvador Dali painting. A little sitting will help me today, I think.
Jeroen
Re: Is being empathic a good thing?
When Buddhists 'Train the Mind', they are also unfolding the locks into impeded emotions, speech, body and karmic nots and knots.
We all knew that wisdom, empathy, body calming, emotional stability, strength of peace and piece of heaven realms, are all possible and even passable …
2023, no need to change anything but everything … 
lobster
Re: The stories we tell ourselves
Our egos/identities/ or the selfish self are little more than a continual retelling of our origin stories. Such re-tellings have usually become so habituated that we seldom recognize the sheer magnitude of our moment-to-moment contributions to their continuance. Here, a story keeps us from awakening from a slumbering dream.
Meditation simply describes how to start letting go of that story maintenance.
how
The stories we tell ourselves
Something that occurred to me: we continually tell ourselves stories from our past, which form our identities. We tell ourselves, I was once an Osho sannyasin, or I led teams making huge software programs in the entertainment industry, or I once suffered a terrible repetitive strain injury.
It is only when we become quiet inside, and we drop telling ourselves stories, that that which shines from within gets the room to manifest. Our loving nature, our generosity, our non-violence, our kindness comes, even if unlooked-for, even in difficult situations.
When we cease to tell the old stories or listen to them, we cease to act from old patterns. But it takes time to empty the inside, there are places within us where things are stored, and that is why three-year silent retreats are valued among the Tibetans.
“Just be quiet.”
— Sri Ramana Maharshi
Jeroen
Re: Is being empathic a good thing?
Yes it happens to me with unexpected hurts from other people.
I think I have just accepted that’s just the way I am. I have an extra large jugular and it shows. It takes a long time to stop bleeding before I can respond, if at all.
As a Christian’s i must expect that a world of sin will not be a bed of roses. Yet I also must keep a hope for the best. Its a fine balance. An attitude. For me it means others will disappoint me a lot. They will go for the jugular and I must be ready.
Being constantly on the battlefield like this is a daily consideration i am constantly learning to master and nurture.
Blessings/ Metta.
