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Times are difficult globally; awakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal. It’s becoming critical.

We don’t need to add more depression, more discouragement, or more anger to what’s already here. It’s becoming essential that we learn how to relate sanely with difficult times.

The earth seems to be beseeching us to connect with joy and discover our innermost essence. This is the best way that we can benefit others.

~Pema Chodron

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9) When one does not know and understand flavors as they actually are, then one is attached to flavors. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)

Reflection

Working systematically through the six different sense modalities, here we come to working with the flavors discernible by the tongue that give rise to moments of “tasting.” Here too we can easily get caught by wanting or craving some experiences of taste over others. A moment of suffering is born when we dislike the taste of something we are eating, or when we like something so much that we want to eat it again and again.

Daily Practice

See if you can get free for just a moment from the reflex to pursue pleasure and avoid displeasure. Try taking a few bites of something you traditionally don’t like and see if you can regard tasting it as simply a different experience. Try taking one bite and not another of something you really like and investigate that too as an experience. In this exercise you practice equanimity: tasting something without getting entangled in it.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

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Via Daily Dharma: Touch Your Potential

 We actually have incredible power over our thoughts—more power than any one thought has over us. To tap into this power, we need to find the creative potential for wisdom and of compassion within ourselves.

Martine Batchelor, “How the Buddha Deals with Difficult Thoughts”

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