RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
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What is the cessation of
suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving
up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9)
When one knows and sees feeling tone as it actually is, then one is not
attached to feeling tone. When one abides unattached, one is not
infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental
troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental well
being. (MN 149)
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Feeling tones,
the raw sensations of pleasure and pain, are not in themselves a
problem. The problem comes from attachment to them—the craving for good
feelings to persist and bad feelings to stop that naturally arises in
response to those feelings. Craving is the cause of suffering, not
feeling. The key challenge is how to separate the two: How can we
experience both positive and negative feelings without giving rise to
craving?
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The short
answer to that question is mindfulness. Mindfulness allows us to know
and see feeling tone as it actually is, in which case, the texts tell
us, we will not be attached to it. Clear awareness is one thing, and
attachment is something else. They cannot occur simultaneously. Practice
knowing and seeing feeling as it actually is by regarding it with
equanimity. This is what is happening now, and this is how it actually
feels.
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Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
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