RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering
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When people have met with
suffering and become victims of suffering, they come to me and ask me
about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the
noble truth of suffering. (MN 77) What is suffering? (MN 9)
Not to get what one wants is suffering. There comes the wish: “Oh, that
we were not subject to birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow,
lamentation, pain, grief, and despair! Oh, that birth, aging, sickness,
death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would not come to
us!” But this is not to be obtained by wishing, and not to obtain what
one wants is suffering. (MN 9)
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What exactly
does psychological suffering feel like? It is the raw experience of
craving itself, the yearning for something that you cannot have, the
desperate need for something to go away that is afflicting you, the
primal fear of the existential fragility of the human situation. The
noble truth of suffering acknowledges all this, but also recognizes that
this suffering can be understood and resolved, and thus holds out hope.
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Allow yourself
to feel and explore the psychological pain of not getting what you want.
It is not just the yearning for something you feel you need, like
thirsting for water, but includes the desperate urge to get free of
something afflicting you. Notice also that wishing to get what
you want or for what you hate to go away is never effective. There is no
escape from suffering except by going directly through the craving that
causes it.
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Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering
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