🆂Week 2020-35: On Suffering

"All the suffering and joy we experience depend on conditions." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"For the poison of hatred seated near the heart doubles the burden for the one who suffers the disease; he is burdened with his own sorrow, and groans on seeing another's happiness." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"If thou suffer injustice, console thyself; the true unhappiness is in doing it." (Democritus, cca. 4th century BC

"Mind is a forerunner of all actions.
All deeds are led by mind, created by mind.
If one speaks or acts with corrupt mind,
suffering follows,
As the wheel follows the hoof of an ox pulling a cart.

Mind is the forerunner of all actions.
All deeds are led by mind, created by mind.
If one speaks or acts with a serene mind,
happiness follows,
As surely as one's shadow." (Gautama Buddha, "Dhammapada", cca 1st century)

"The essence of your mind is not born, so it will never die. It is not an existence, which is perishable. It is not an emptiness, which is a mere void. It has neither color nor form. It enjoys no pleasures and suffers no pains." (Bassui Tokusho, [letter] 14th century) 

"There are myriad different methods of practice, but essentially they amount to no more than overcoming thoughts of yourself. The source of suffering is ego, the thought of self. To know this is reason. Once you know the reason for suffering, your sense of duty evokes effort to extinguish the thought of self with a genuine courageous mind. Fools can’t understand the source of misery and happiness; people without a sense of duty cannot break the bonds of life and death." (Suzuki Shosan, cca. 1630)

"You students of the Way, if your power of concentration matures, your suffering will gradually subside, and pleasant phenomena will reveal themselves now and then. They are called good phenomena." (Torei Enji, "The Inexhaustible Lamp" ["Shumon Mujinto Ron"], cca. 1800)

"[...] the feeling of distress is the root of benevolence, therefore a benevolent man is ever mindful of those who are suffering and in distress." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"Reason has to be strengthened by suffering, and suffering opens the eyes of understanding." (Mahatma Gandhi, Young India, 1931

"Buddha's doctrine: Man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep forever things which are essentially impermanent [...] this frustration of the desire to possess is the immediate cause of suffering." (Alan Watts, "The Spirit of Zen: A Way of Life, Work and Art in the Far East", 1936)

"Suffering is a challenge; when you suffer you are challenged, when there is a problem you are challenged. When you encounter the problem, only then do you grow. More insecurity, more growth; more security, less growth. If everything is secure around you, you are already in your grave, you are no longer alive. Life exists in danger, life always exists in the possibility of going astray. But one who goes astray can come back, one who fails can succeed." (Osho,"The Mustard Seed: My Most Loved Gospel on Jesus", 1974)

"One man watches a river flow by. If he does not wish it to flow, to change ceaselessly in accord with its nature, he will suffer great pain. Another man understands that nature of the river is to change constantly, regardless of his likes and dislikes, and therefore he does not suffer. To know existence as this flow, empty of lasting pleasure, void of self, is to find that which is stable and free of suffering, to find true peace in the world." (Ajahn Chah, "A Still Forest Pool", 1985)

"Life is not a struggle, not a tension. Life has not to be suffering. Life is bliss. It is eternal wisdom, eternal existence." (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, "Thirty Years Around the World: 1957-1964", 1986)

"When facing death, there are two ways of doing so: joy, in a heavenly sense, and suffering. Once this stage in life is reached, one will know one's real mission in life." (Masaaki Hatsumi, "Essence of Ninjutsu: The Nine Traditions", 1988)

"There’s only one way of dealing with suffering when it arises, and that’s to drop the wanting; suffering will then disappear. Such insight is only possible when we stop going outward, through communication and through our many activities. We must have quiet times when we can really look inside ourselves." (Ayya Khema, "Know Where You’re Going", 1991)

"Pain is a relatively objective, physical phenomenon; suffering is our psychological resistance to what happens. Events may create physical pain, but they do not in themselves create suffering. Resistance creates suffering. Stress happens when your mind resists what is... The only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds." (Dan Millman, "Everyday Enlightenment: The Twelve Gateways to Personal Growth", 1998)

"Just know what is happening in your mind - not happy or sad about it, not attached. If you suffer see it, know it, and be empty. It's like a letter - you have to open it before you can know what's in it." (Ajahn Chah, "A Tree in the Fores", 1995)

"Happiness and suffering do not depend on being poor or rich, they depend on having the right or wrong understanding in our mind." (Ajahn Chah)

"If you see certainty in that which is uncertain, you are bound to suffer." (Ajahn Chah)

"If you want to understand suffering you must look into the situation at hand. The teachings say that wherever a problem arises it must be settled right there. Where suffering lies is right where non-suffering will arise, it ceases at the place where it arises. If suffering arises you must contemplate right there, you don't have to run away. You should settle the issue right there. One who runs away from suffering out of fear is the most foolish person of all. He will simply increases his stupidity endlessly." (Ajahn Chah)

"Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it." (Ajahn Chah)

"When we sit in meditation and hear a sound, we think, 'Oh, that sound's bothering me.' If we see it like this, we suffer. But if we investigate a little deeper, we see that the sound is simply sound. If we understand like this, then there's nothing more to it. We leave it be. The sound is just sound, why should you go and grab it? You see that actually it was you who went out and disturbed the sound." (Ajahn Chah)

"When there is hallucination, there is the truth, by recognising it as hallucination. Where there is suffering, there is peace and bliss, by letting go and experiencing it for numberless suffering sentient beings. Always think of how others are kind and precious Treat them as you would like to be treated." (Thubten Zopa Rinpoche)

🆁Week 2020-34: On Rebirth

"Those who wish to break the cycle of rebirth must know the way of becoming a Buddha. The way of becoming a Buddha is the way of enlightenment. Before one’s father and mother were born and before one’s own body was formed, one’s mind existed unchanged until now, as the ground of all sentient beings. This is also called one’s original countenance. This mind is pure from the beginning. When the body is born, it is without the form of life, and when the body dies, it is without the form of death. Neither does it have the form of man or woman, of good or evil. Because there is nothing to which it can be compared, it is called Buddha nature. From this mind there arise ten thousand images, like waves on a vast great sea or forms reflected in a mirror." (Bassui Tokusho, "Sermon on One-Mind" ["Enzan Wadei Gassuishū"], cca. 1386)

"Karma brings us ever back to rebirth, binds us to the wheel of births and deaths. Good Karma drags us back as relentlessly as bad, and the chain which is wrought out of our virtues holds as firmly and as closely as that forged from our vices." (Annie Besant, Theosophical Review Vol 17, 1895)

"To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one."  (Jack Kornfield & Joseph Goldstein, "Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation", 1987)

"Birth and death, decay and rebirth, the cycle of life - all is change. Change is life, and the ability to change is the essential element of growth. The freedom founded upon the realization and acceptance of this truth, that nothing stays the same, is the source of the power of true creativity." (Mitsugi Saotome, "Aikido and the Harmony of Nature", 1993)

"Another attitude to karma is that it is connected with rebirth, life after death - which is pure blind faith. That approach brings a certain amount of psychological comfort: this is not the only life, but there are a lot more to come; other situations will come up so you don’t have to feel fatalistic any more. That kind of attitude to karma is not dealing with the root of the karmic situation but is purely trying to play games with it or else trying to use karma as a comforter. It is based on distrust in oneself. Knowing that you are making mistakes, you think that even if you do make mistakes, you can afford to correct them, because you have a long, long time, endless time to do so." (Chögyam Trungpa, "Transcending Madness The Experience of the Six Bardos", 2010)

"[...] from the point of view of anatman, nothing reincarnates. It is more of a rebirth process rather than reincarnation. The idea of reincarnation is that a solid, living quality is being passed on to the next being. It is the idea of some solid substance being passed on. But in this case, it’s more of a rebirth. You see, something continues, but at the same time, nothing continues. In a sense we’re like a running stream." (Chögyam Trungpa, "Transcending Madness The Experience of the Six Bardos", 2010)

"[...] the ultimate idea of rebirth is not purely the idea of physical birth and death. Physical birth and death are very crude examples of it. Actually, rebirth takes place every moment, every instant. Every instant is death; every instant is birth. It’s a changing process: there’s nothing you can grasp onto; everything is changing. But there is some continuity, of course - the change is the continuity. The impermanence of the rebirth is the continuity of it. And because of that, there are possibilities of developing and possibilities of regressing."(Chögyam Trungpa, "Transcending Madness The Experience of the Six Bardos", 2010)