Not everyone can lift a hundred-pound weight. Some people can, and some people can’t. Some people will never be able to, however hard they try. Similarly, some people can lift a ten-pound weight, while others can’t. But everyone can put the weights down....
The insight that you do not have to construct anything new to solve suffering also has a surprisingly powerful practical implication: that we can solve problems without creating new ones. This is an idea formulated by Soryu and a Buddhist master I know: Shinzen...
If Soryu was giving a lecture on the Second Noble Truth, he would start by explaining that suffering is caused. That means it is not inherent, and not arbitrary, and that it is subject to cause and effect. And then before he talks about the actual cause of suffering,...
There is a particularly powerful form of grasping that relates to all three forms of craving, and also relates to the “five aggregates subject to grasping”. It is grasping to the five aggregates as “this is mine”, or “this is me”, or “this is my soul.” For...
In an earlier post, the Buddha identified three specific types of craving: Craving for sensual pleasure. Craving for existence. Craving for non-existence. In the most recent post, we talked about (1). In this post, we will go into detail regarding (2) and (3), the...
