A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Monday, September 16, 2024
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
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 formations as they actually are, then one is not
attached to formations. 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)
Reflection
The aggregate
of formations includes all our habitual volitional and emotional
responses to whatever information the senses are presenting to
consciousness. This is where we love or hate what is happening, where we
yearn for something different or accept peacefully what occurs. This is
where suffering either is born or dies, depending on whether we respond
in the moment with craving or with mindful equanimity.
Daily Practice
Suffering is
not built into any given situation but is optional. Stress is not caused
by external stressors but is an internal reaction to circumstances. See
if you can bring the profound wisdom of this insight into your lived
experience by bringing the cessation of suffering to every moment. Find
what it is that you are yearning for, turn that craving into mindful
observation, and watch the suffering attached to that moment disappear.
Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
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