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Cessation of suffering

Isnt this just a fancy way of saying: dealing with the ups and downs of life........................?

Comments

  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    I'd think it would be an upgraded version of how to deal.
    Earthninja
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran

    @iamthezenmaster said:
    Isn't this just a fancy way of saying: dealing with the ups and downs of life........................?

    Yes ... B)
    ... 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.

    Shoshin
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    @Earthninja said: 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.

    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

    Earthninjalobsterbookwormmmo
  • sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran

    Now from the remainderless fading and cessation of that very ignorance comes the cessation of fabrications ... From the cessation of birth, then aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of stress and suffering.

    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

    bookworm
  • 111111 Explorer

    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) o:)

    ShoshinsovaEarthninja
  • pegembarapegembara Veteran
    edited June 2015

    @iamthezenmaster said:
    Isnt this just a fancy way of saying: dealing with the ups and downs of life........................?

    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.

    Whatever is seen, heard, sensed or clung to,
    is esteemed as truth by other folk,

    Midst those who are entrenched in their own views
    being 'Such' I hold none as true or false.

    This barb I beheld, well in advance,
    whereon mankind is hooked, impaled,

    'I know, I see `tis verily so'---- no such clinging
    for the Tathàgatas. Kalakarama Sutta

    sovaEarthninja
  • FoibleFullFoibleFull Canada Veteran

    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”

    sova
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran

    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."

    lobstersovabookworm
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    @FoibleFull said:> “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”

    Is change the only source of suffering though? I don't think it is.

    lobster
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran

    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 ...

    sova
  • namarupanamarupa Veteran
    edited June 2015

    @Earthninja said:
    Id say it's more like not dealing with anything anymore.

    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.

    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?

    Earthninja
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    edited June 2015

    @namarupa said:
    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.

    Earthninja
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    @Earthninja said:
    Id say it's more like not dealing with anything anymore.

    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.

    Thanks @Earthninja - have added that one to my little book of inspirational quotes.... =)

    Earthninja
  • sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran

    @lobster said:
    Change happens. This is why the 'just sitting' of shikantanza is so initially frustrating or 'stoopid' as pointed out here:

    brad warner is awesome! he has a great book called "sit down and shut up"

    Shoshin
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