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.
You suffer because of thirst, and you suffer in the act of trying to assuage that thirst. To find the happiness of unbinding, you have to train the mind so that it no longer feels any thirst and no longer needs to feed.
Life As It Is With James Shaheen and Sharon Salzberg
Each month, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief James Shaheen and co-host Sharon Salzberg speak with Buddhist practitioners about their work, practice, and everyday life—and, perhaps most importantly, how they're navigating these uncertain times.
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 bodily sensations as they actually are, then one is not attached to bodily sensations. 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
Since craving is the cause of suffering, the ending of craving will bring about the end of suffering. This is both a general principle and a dynamic that happens in every moment of lived experience. We are aware of something different every moment, and when we either hold on to that object or push it away, we feel discontent. Observing it with equanimity takes away the affliction, and everything simply becomes interesting.
Daily Practice
Sensations flow through your body in a constant stream. Some you like, some you don’t like. It is natural to feel attached to the ones that feel good and to resist and resent the ones that don’t, but this itself is the cause of suffering—attachment and aversion. Practice just observing each sensation without attachment, without infatuation, and see for yourself how mindful equanimity results in bodily and mental well being.
Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
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