Learn Buddhism: Suffering (Dukkha)

Why do we suffer? Why does life feel painful, stressful, or disappointing even when things seem to be going well? In this episode, we explore suffering from a practical Buddhist perspective not as a concept, but as a lived human experience. Sometimes referred to as 'suffering' in the West, 'Dukkha' has a much deeper range and significance. Drawing from the Buddha’s core insights into impermanence, dependent origination, the Three Poisons/Fires, karma, and rebirth, we look at how suffering arises, why we add extra layers of pain through craving and clinging, and what the Buddhist path offers as a way to understand and transform it. This episode is not a repeat of our discussion on dukkha. Instead, it’s a grounded, compassionate look at the reality of suffering and the hope the Buddha offered: suffering has causes, and those causes can be understood and released.

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of Learn Buddhism. I'm Alan Pito. In today's episode, We're going to talk about suffering in Buddhism. Now, Suffering is likely a term you've heard before inside Buddhism, Especially when you heard about the Four Noble Truths. Inside the Four Noble Truths, You've heard that, Well, Life is suffering, And the whole point of Buddhism is to end the suffering that we have in our life. But that is due to a Buddhist term and word called dukkha. And the reason we often hear dukkha as suffering in the Western world is probably unintentionally. It was translated like that. But dukkha, Of course, Means a lot more where something's not quite right in our life. Not necessarily what we may just broadly call suffering. But it really brings us to a good topic for our episode today. Because suffering is something we all experience as humans. We all experience it in different ways, And we are all trying to end or reduce our suffering. So how does Buddhism look at suffering? Why does it happen? What can we do about it? That's what we're going to talk about in today's episode. So let's start by going back to the time of the Buddha. If we just look at Buddhism in our modern world, And if we label what the Buddha taught as suffering and the end of suffering, We might look at Buddhism as sort of pessimistic. But is that really what the Buddha taught and believed? Now, We got to understand that the Buddha and the word Buddha is actually a title for an awakened, Enlightened teacher. He wasn't teaching like metaphysics or philosophy, He had a deep, Fundamental, True understanding of our world. And that is what a Buddha is. They reveal the true nature of things, Things that we are just clouded to. And you've heard me refer to this in prior episodes. It's very similar to having a window where it's just really dirty. You can't really see out of it and you hear sounds and shadows and you assume what's actually going on. That goes to a lot of what we're going to talk about. Buddha fundamentally understood things and in his very early teachings, He described this very simply as birth, Aging, Illness, And death. And that sounds very simplistic, Of course, But it goes much deeper. We have to see that life and our suffering, If we want to label it as such, Is not because life is difficult. It's because of how we are relating to life that creates this addition. Pain. Now that ties us all the way back to the Buddhist term and word dukkha. In the West, This was often translated as suffering because we understand suffering in the West. We understand that term. We all suffer. We got it. Makes sense. It could just be associated very easily that way. The problem is dukkha means a lot more. Yes, It can include suffering, But it could mean like stress, Dissatisfaction, Instability. And just as feeling that something's just not quite right in our existence or our life. And this is important because you may be going, Well, I think life is going great. Or maybe you're on the opposite part of that spectrum. Life is just horrible. Life has many different levels. And even if you believe, Oh yeah, Life is just wonderful. Nothing ever goes wrong. Is that really true? There are going to be ups and downs. We are all humans and we're all experiencing life in that way. But what the Buddha's talking about here is that this suffering, This, What we believe is going on is really created by us due to our misunderstanding, Our ignorance, Our delusion about the world. So he's not saying life is just miserable and full of misery. He was specifically pointing towards this unsatisfactoriness that arises when we cling to things that are impermanent and constantly changing. That's the foundational basis for Buddhism. And when we talk about impermanent, What we refer to as impermanence inside Buddhism, And also constantly changing, Maybe we're going to also refer to dependent origination, How things arise and fall. This is going to be fundamental because a Buddha, When he became awakened to the truth and became this enlightened teacher, The truth that he became awakened to was what we call dependent origination inside Buddhism. Which also revealed how all things are impermanent. And because we don't want to believe that, We don't want to really fully, Truly understand that, We are grasping, Clinging to things that reassure us that things are permanent or unchanging in one way or another, Which include ourselves, Which includes things around us and feelings, Everything else. But that is not the true nature of the world. The Buddha said, Everything, Everything, Is impermanent. But even if it's this little Little seed, We don't believe that. We still believe there must be something permanent. And that is what really keeps us chained to this fourth cycle of rebirth. So why is that important? If we dig deeper into impermanence, This is going to help us understand more about suffering in our world, How we feel suffering. When he taught about impermanence, He knew that our lives are constantly changing. And when we look at that, We may go, Of course, I know life is changing, But things can happen very quickly or so subtly that we don't even understand it. Our bodies, Relationship, Our emotions, Circumstances, Even your thoughts are constantly changing. Everything's impermanent. Nothing is fixed. If you just look at your body, There are parts of your body that are constantly regenerating, But you're not aware of that because it's so subtle. But are you the same person that you were even one month ago? Biologically, That may not be the case. Now, Of course, Yes, We know about DNA and everything else, But you are not fixed. You are not permanent. Like, Everything about you is changing. You're, Of course, Getting older. That's one great way to look at it. But we are constantly changing. Things around us are changing. Our thoughts are changing. Who you were as maybe a two-year-old is not who you might be as a 20, 40, Or 60-year-old. We are constantly changing. Now, The problem here is, As I mentioned, We are clinging, Grasping, Craving to things that reinforce our mind's belief that there is something permanent here. And we suffer because we want pleasant things to last, Which makes sense. You know, Something's really enjoyable. You want that to last as long as possible. But what about unpleasant things? We want those to go away as soon as possible. But of course, We know that life doesn't follow what we want to actually happen. Life happens. And that of course shifts how things work and it just makes things suffering to use that terminology in our life. Now, Of course, When we talk about dukkha, The more specific terminology that can be very subtle or it could be, Of course, Much more serious, But this is something that is always happening to us. Impermanence isn't there to go, Oh, This is depressing. You know, This is just horrible. Impermanence is really important. Impermanence helps us understand why we have suffering arising in the first place. But impermanence is also a beautiful thing. Let's say you're just in, You know, You have the flu right now. Do you want that to continue on? No, You want that to be impermanent. You want to be over that. Are you lacking in money right now? We just now got a new job. Well, You want the lack of money to end. You want this new job to take you to that next level. You want impermanence in a lot of things. But of course, Impermanence is not looking at your situation like some bean going, Why will give you and you and you what you want? It is just the way of things. It's the fundamental, True nature of the world. We just, At a fundamental or deep level, Don't understand that. Intellectually, We understand it, But deeply, Fundamentally, We don't really grasp that. And that is what Buddhism really helps us understand at a very deep level. So just talking about impermanence itself isn't really going to help us understand suffering in our world. We got to dig in deeper. That's where dependent origination comes in. The Buddha, When he awakened, As I mentioned, He awakened to the truth of dependent origination. That's huge because dependent origination, And when we talk about it, Dependent origination is where the Buddha saw that everything arises due to causes and conditions. Better explanation. Nothing exists independently. We can also look at this as nothing is guaranteed. We look at maybe our experiences, Like pleasant experiences, Dependent on conditions. And if those conditions shift, They change. The experience shifts. So we can look at dependent origination going, This is why things arise and also fall, Whether it is ourselves in our current state, Whether it is an experience we're having, All of these change. We often don't really understand this, Again, Just like impermanence at a fundamental deep level, Because our mind, Our body, Our cloudy vision, If you will, Doesn't really allow us to understand that. And it's nothing where it has to be, Well, Intellectual to understand that. This is very subtle. This is happening in a way where everything's working so seamlessly in your body, In your mind, That you can't grasp it. And again, It's not an intellectual thing. It is simply that we don't, At a deep fundamental level, Understand it because this is a very, Just like that window. Caked on with this dirt, Sun beat there, It's just dried up. It's something where we just can't read a book to get past and fully develop and understand these ideas. That's where Buddhism has practice and allows us to fully understand that. So when we look at dependent origination, This is where we start understanding why everything happens. Like when you maybe your job ends or maybe, You know, You're no longer in a relationship with somebody or even like your emotions, Like how do you rise and fall? Or maybe just in general, How life feels unpredictable. This is dependent origination. When we suffer is because we are expecting stability in a world that is fundamentally unstable. And that's not saying there's something wrong with the world or how what's going on is wrong. This is just the true nature of things. And this is what Buddhism and the Buddha set out to help us fundamentally understand. We have a, In our minds, A crystal clear vision and understanding of the world, Which is wrong. So yes, You can touch your desk right now. You can go outside touch a leaf on a tree. You can experience things. We're not talking about maybe that in that way We're talking really how we perceive things even two people from different sides of the earth may perceive things in different ways based upon maybe what they believe and how they taught and Experiences so we're seeing that things can be shaped the Buddha said that our world our existence everything is impermanent Everything around us arises and falls due to dependent origination This is really where we see Dukkha being taught and really where we start to understand about suffering in our world We're gonna suffer if we want to use that terminology in a lot of different ways And again, It doesn't have to be to severe suffering. It could be so subtle You may not even label it as suffering which is why we kind of use this Buddhist term Dukkha to really encompass all all these different ranges of it. It's something just not quite right. If we dig deeper this brings us into the three poisons or three fires as I call it This is where we understand that of course life has difficulty and it's going to have this suffering buddha says And buddhism in general teaches us that we can add extra suffering if you will Through the three poisons three fires Those are greed which is where you start grasping or craving or longing for what we want, You know, Maybe it's going to be that pleasurable experience that may not be in grasp, But you want it. Hatred or anger, Aversion, Pushing away what we don't want, Getting angry when we don't get what we wanted through the greed or craving. And why does this happen? Ignorance or delusion. We don't understand or we misunderstand the true nature of reality, The fundamental nature of our world and existence. And all of these work together. If you look at the Buddhist imagery for this, The drawings and illustrations for this, You often see three animals that are grasping and biting the tails of each other. It's like this cycle going around and around. In circles, Because they all feed off each other. I like to use the three fires as an example of this, The terminology, Because we can understand that if you put fuel on the fire, It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. That is suffering. Why would you want to put fuel on that fire? You're going to get burned. You're going to smell that smoke in the physical world. Or if we use the other terminology, Poisons, The three poisons, We know poison is a bad thing. You don't want to ingest poison. But what are we doing? In Buddhism, To use this analogy, We're constantly drinking a poison, Or we're constantly putting fuel on the fire. And these are things that are not good. And if you just look at it in our physical world, Our real world, Outside of Buddhism, Of course poison is bad. Of course having fire that's burning you, Smoke inhalation is bad. So why would you want that? Because we're doing it. We're doing it all the time. And this is why we're suffering. This is what's creating all that unwholesome karma in our worlds. I think a very good sermon of the Buddha, And you've heard me talk about this one before, Is the fire sermon. It's one of my favorites. It's where the Buddha says that all our senses are burning with these fires of greed, Hatred, And ignorance. And the sense organs that he's talking about here are like your Eyes your ears your nose your taste touch all of that When we as buddhist practitioners, We may not fully see that right now. We may have a maybe a little bit intellectual understanding But a buddha or an enlightened person They are not figuratively seeing fire, But they understand that's all fire around them They just see everything burning because how you are ingesting What you're seeing what you're experiencing what you're tasting touching whatever how we're reacting to that, How we're interpreting that, That is going to create the suffering. And it's not because those things are suffering, It's because how we start ingesting and transforming that, That is what creates the suffering. So some ways to think about this is, Maybe the greed or the clinging, The craving, That pulls us towards pleasure. Of course we want that, We wanna have pleasure in our lives. But hatred or anger pushes away from discomfort. Well, We didn't get that. Or we're very angry about that. That's going to push us away. We're going to get very angry about that. Ignorance or delusion, This keeps us confused about what's actually happening. One way I think about this as well is going to be this, Of course, Ignorance to the truth that the Buddha taught about a fundamental nature and true reality of our world and existence, But also that we're almost having these rose-colored glasses on. We have this delusional view of the world. We are very confident in what we believe and understand, But that's not really true. So you may look at maybe whatever you may think about. Maybe it's going to be a slice of cake and you're like, Oh, That's wonderful. I love it. It's the best thing in the world. Who can anyone deny that? Someone else goes, Wow, I don't like that. You know, I have a medical condition. I can just see my blood pressure rising just by looking at that because I know it's going to do to me. Or someone just goes, I don't like that taste of cake. So we all have these different opinions, If you will, And how it's shaping inside us and giving rise inside us. But also, Let's say you wanted that cake. And you don't get it. Are you angry because you were really craving you thought you wouldn't get it and it was given to somebody else This is where we're talking about and of course, I'm doing a very minor Example of this but this happens in all little tiny levels all the way up to major levels It's happening all the time around us and we're interpreting. We're grasping it through what we believe and What we have is an idea of me and mine, Especially yourself you believe you You are such and such and you believe in such and such. What happens when that changes or someone contradicts you? These are all things that happen, Which creates friction. It's not very easy. And that is the existence that we're in. We are abrasive, Friction, Whatever terminology you want to use it in our life, That is what's creating the suffering. So it's not that life is suffering. It's not that the world and existence around us is suffering. Going to happen is how we understand it and react to it. If you look at enlightened followers and like the Buddha, They reacted or responded, I should say, Or understood things in a very, Very different way, The way of an enlightened being. And we look at that, Especially in the stories of the Buddha and in Buddhism in general, You go, Wow, Well, Of course, They're a Buddha. But we're missing a point there. Yes, We can look at him as the Buddha. Yes, We can look at him as Arhats or Bodhisattvas. It's because they are awakened to the truth. They understand what's going on that shapes their mindfulness of what's going on around them and Understanding all things are burning. How do I respond to that? Now? Did I see that all things are burning that allows me to? Understand and thus react in a different way. So when we talk about karma, Which is a big part about this That of course, We don't want to do unwholesome karma, But we we do that a lot as laypersons we want of course do wholesome karma, Which is aligned with Buddhism. But an enlightened person, Like a Buddha, Creates karma without outflows. What that is, It means that they are not creating any karma that keeps them trapped or bound to the cycle of fourth rebirth. They are essentially in control. We are not in control. That's the big difference. That's why there's all this friction and suffering that we have in our world. And that brings us to another point of suffering. Suffering here is talking about karma and rebirth. We can't escape that inside Buddhism. It is a fundamental teaching of Buddhism. When we look at karma and rebirth, They are intertwined. They are connected according to the Buddha and Buddhism. Your reaction, Of course, Shaped by the three poisons, Three fires, Greed, Hatred, And ignorance. Again, You can look at this as fuel on the fire. You're just constantly putting the wood on that fire, You know, How you're understanding things and just fueling it up and your mind's going, Sure, Let's make this even hotter. And a good way to think about this when we talk about karma, We of course know about nirvana. We've heard this terminology all the time. We hear this is the goal of Buddhists, Et cetera, Et cetera. Well, What is nirvana? Nirvana is the absence, Of greed, Hatred, And ignorance. Again, Look at it as the absence of the three poisons. There's no more poison. You're not ingesting anymore. That's how you should be. You shouldn't be ingesting poison. You should be free of that. Or what about the three fires analogy? Well, You are free of creating this fire that's burning you in a smoke inhalation. Either of those analogies applies here. That is what we're talking about. Nirvana is extinguishing the three fires of greed, Hatred, Ignorance. And a lot of what we talk about in Buddhism, When we talk about nirvana, Yes, Nirvana blows that out, Puts it out, And it's no longer burning you. You're no longer inhaling it, Whatever analogy you want to do. But there is going to be some residual. We are obviously created karma in our life. And as that fire is dying down. There could be embers and it could be maybe cold there. It could just be something where it's just not fully out there, Still a little warm. Yes, You could still be burned, If you will, For this analogy as it relates to what we're talking about, But you've put it out. That's the key part. When we are talking about karma, This is your intentional volitional actions. They leave essentially impressions on the mind. We also have our store consciousness. This is where you have like little seeds, If you will, Not real seeds, But seeds of these karmic actions planted in your mind. This is why Buddhists don't want to water those seeds. It's almost like soil in your backyard. You're planting seeds, But these aren't seeds you want. Maybe they're like weeds. They're not things that are going to be helpful, Like maybe you're going to be farming. These are things you don't want. So if you start watering those bad seeds or unwholesome seeds, They'll just give rise. That's not what you want. That's going to be suffering. So as Buddhists, We work on not watering those seeds in our sore consciousness. Karma, This is essentially impressions that shape our future experiences and future existences. In Buddhism, We have rebirth, Not reincarnation, But rebirth. This is very specific in Buddhism because just when we talked about impermanence and dependent origination, We have to understand that who you are right now, What you believe, Who you think you are is a conditioned thing. We have the five aggregates or skandhas, Which create this temporary, Conditioned, Impermanent thing. And that thing is you. And when one of those goes, The whole thing goes. What continues on? Your karma. Karma is sort of like, Along with dependent origination, Is this instigator for the continuous cycle of forced rebirth. Buddhism says you shouldn't be forced. That's something different. We want to end those forced conditions. Rebirth is where karma is now instigating, As we talked about dependent origination and rebirth, A new existence. You yourself, As in this current existence right now, How many decades you have here on this earth, Is just a conditioned thing. I'm a conditioned thing. Who I actually am has been conditioned. And yes, There is permanence to me, But it's in a permanent way. So what that means is I may believe who I am in a permanent way, But it's changed throughout the years. And as I get older and older, I look back And I go I see how that changed but it's so subtle sometimes you don't even really see that some things you believed in or even maybe even how you viewed something changes and Again, It could be very very subtle, But it's showing that there is impermanence So in rebirth you yourself if there is a me self I doesn't continue But it's almost like this casual connection between existences your karma what you're doing now in this store consciousness the intentions and even the vows you take inside Buddhism are continuing on. It's like this mind stream. This is important because what we are in, You and me, In this existence right now, As we're living in this moment, We were a product of forced rebirth. There are countless existences before me and there will be more before me. I'm not enlightened and there will be more ahead of me. So that's important because how suffering happens here is really important. We want to ensure as Buddhists that we continue in the human realm of rebirth because this is where we can more clearly and fully understand the Dharma, The Buddhist teachings and practice it. But there are many different, If you will, Realms of rebirth that are not always satisfactory to Buddhism and could be in many cases termed real suffering. And so that's what we not want. We want to create that wholesome karma. And it really helps us understand that, As the Buddha said, It's a rare existence to be in this human realm, To understand what's going on and to practice it. So that's not really meant to frighten you. Like, Oh, There's these different realms of rebirth or hey, What you're doing right now is creating this unwholesome karma. It's a known thing. It happens. The Buddha talked about that. Understood is what can we do? You have power. You have the ability to make the right actions, Just like myself. I don't believe I will be awakened or enlightened in this lifetime. Very rare, Very, Very unlikely to happen. But can I create the right actions through this life? Can I start practicing? And studying and everything else that's part of Buddhism. Yeah, Absolutely. I can do that. And hopefully I'm going to have the right karma and intention and mindset that's going to be beneficial to a future existence. And so be it. And that's what it's going to be. So I am not separate from anything else, But we're not directly connected. This is important because my life right now was shaped in some way by past karma. So karma continues on. I'm a recipient of it and whatever All this past karma even karma crane right now that has come to fruition it get it moves on to the next existence So I'm benefiting in some way right now, But I'm also maybe not benefiting in some ways. It's life It's what the Buddha said we can't change that but you can change That your actions your intentions your whatever you want to do as we talk about Buddhism and a Dharma. Yes, You can absolutely do that right now You are in control of that doesn't mean suffering is gonna be out of your life in this life lifetime, But you can work to start changing that. Of course, There are many different things and experiences that are going to happen in our lives that are going to be suffering. But what did a Buddha say about our path out of suffering? Well, He talked about the four noble truths. And of course, I have a prior podcast episode about this. But the key part about this is he talked about why suffering happens and how it can be ended. And that is possible. It's absolutely 100% possible. To end this. And you can be just like him or his enlightened followers or even in Mahayana we talk about Bodhisattvas. You can do that. That is possible. And even if you can't be enlightened in this lifetime, You can start creating the right conditions where that suffering is going to be mitigated. Your understanding of things can be transformed in a way that that friction that is creating this suffering in our life because of our lack of really understanding it at a deep level is going to be chipped away Again, Like that really dirty window you have, The more you start cleaning it, The sooner you go, Oh, Wait a minute, That thing that was banging against the window, It was just a tree branch in the wind. It wasn't as scary as I thought. Or maybe that shadow going by that really scared you. Oh, It's just people walking their dog outside. You start to really understand at a true nature, Deeper level, What things actually are, How you have been ingesting it and transforming it in your mind, Which of course, Creates karma and everything else. This is really when we start looking at the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, We're looking at the Noble Eightfold Path. Now, Buddhists, There are many different Buddhist traditions out there. Everyone practices Buddhism in different ways. We do have at our core, At our foundation, What the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha or Gautama Buddha taught. And even if they don't always follow what I would say the Noble Eightfold Path, The one of the very earliest teachings, The Fourth Noble Truth, They are practicing that in different ways. So we can look at the Noble Eightfold Path as your path away from suffering. And what I love about the Noble Eightfold Path is the three-fold training. So there are groupings of the Noble Eightfold Path, Three parts. That is really when you all work together, You practice them all together, Let's say you fully understand and practice them all completely, That is going to be awakening enlightenment for you. Of course, Very hard for us to do, Especially as laypersons or even monastics. But that is something when fully understood and practiced and developed and all that, That is essentially enlightenment because now everything is really syncing up together. So what we have here are different things. We have wisdom. Now, Wisdom, We often think about, Oh, I need to be intellectual, I need to read books. Now even the buddhists said that's not actually how you are going to become enlightened now. We're not saying that Reading and understanding things is not important But there's a lot more to buddhism than just that if you just read books and became enlightened You're missing out on some fundamental things that the buddhists said were important for an enlightened being in buddhism so we have to understand things like impermanence interdependence and even the true nature of Because remember, We have that teaching in Buddhism of not self. We need to understand how this clinging, Craving, Grasping creates pain, Creates fiction, Creates suffering. Then we need to go, All right, So we can start with wisdom. And we do that a lot inside Buddhism as lay persons by listening to monastics, By having them teach us and everything else. That is how we learn. Ethical living or morality or conduct is the next part. This is really important because here is where it's going to support wisdom. If you're just intellectual without morality, That's not being a Buddhist. We need to understand how when we act with kindness, Honesty, Restraint, And non-harm, We are reducing the causes of suffering, Not just in the lives of others, But even in our own life as well. This is very, Of course, Challenging to do in the of different ways. But when we start doing this, We start practicing going down that path, We're going to make the right steps. And your mind, When you're doing all of this, Is transforming as well. We are teaming the mind from being in control of us to us being in control of the mind. And from there, We are going to be in control of how we experience things and what we do, Which includes ethical conduct or morality, Then that brings us into one that we often hear about is meditation, Or technically here, Meditative concentration or concentration. This is where we have a lot of different elements. It's just not, For example, Like sitting meditation. Not all Buddhists do sitting meditation, But we need to start seeing where things, Including suffering, Arise and fall in real time. That's important. We need to be able to observe thoughts without clinging. So just imagine you're doing maybe sitting meditation, Thoughts are going to come into your mind. Your mind's trying to always retain control. And when we start as Buddhists looking at that, And this is at the most basic level, You start quickly learning that, Well, Thoughts are not as important as we usually think they are. We like to, You know, Grasp at their tails, If you will. And they often slip right out of our figurative hands because thoughts are fleeting, But we give them so much weight and it distracts us. That's an important thing. We're seeing how the mind is trying to shape things and control things. We need to be calming our reactivity. So when we start reacting to things, You know where that goes. That can create suffering and friction as well. We need to learn how to calm ourselves. Meditation can help us out. But most importantly, We need to develop insight and compassion. So insight, And this is something where you might hear this in different Buddhist traditions, The insights you get from meditation is going to kind of tie in everything together. So if you just started intellectually learning without maybe morality and conduct and also meditation or meditative concentration, You're not really grasping or fundamentally understanding things. This is well beyond textbooks. This is really about experiences and practice and fundamentally understanding things that can't be just down in written type. It's about where we understand that we are interdependent, Interconnected with everything else as well. What arises and falls is just not us. This impermanence is everywhere. This suffering is everywhere. We need to be aware of that. This is where we need to help us see impermanence and interdependence directly. Letting go, Especially with all of this, Is something that we have to understand. Doesn't mean that you're giving up. We are really releasing our tight grip on what we believe. You know, That tight grip on that figurative bottle of poison or that tight grip on that branch that has a flame on it that we're constantly igniting. These are things that we don't need to exist. And that is what nirvana is. That is what enlightened being is. As you truly should be if we look at the Buddha and his enlightened followers or even a bodhisattva That is living as you truly should when you start create all this karma and having these Wrong understanding about things and not wrong that you know, You don't you're doing something wrong But basically we have the wrong understanding about things. We are just creating actions that we shouldn't be creating We are believing things we should be creating. So all that friction all that suffering it's because because of how we are interpreting it and how we are responding to it. Now, Again, This isn't to say that things don't happen in our world that can be very painful, Etc. We are laypersons. You should definitely reach out for help. You should definitely look at what's happening and be compassionate for others, Etc. We're looking at it from the Buddhist religious perspective that we have to understand things at a much deeper fundamental level to understand why we are reacting in different ways and responding in different ways. What does that mean as Buddhists from our big picture view about what we want to achieve as Buddhists? What do we need to do about that? And this is really where, When you are with a good Buddhist community, You're able to help understand this from your teachers, Get support from the community of practitioners that you're in as well, And really develop that a little bit more. This is where, As I mentioned, We release that tight grip we have on what we believe is true, And we start seeing that things like compassion help soften our grip. We start seeing where understanding starts softening our grip. We start seeing where our eyes are clearer to what's actually happening, Softens our grip. And that also reduces what we believe about ourselves or what we thought we believed about ourselves, Transforms our pain into empathy and creates this connection instead of isolation. A lot of times you may not even think about this way. We are isolating ourselves from different people and things and everything else, But we don't realize that. So now we are more connected in different ways. And that is all what we're trying to do. So to end this episode we can look at this at a very hopeful way This isn't to go. Wow. This is a lot. I don't know if I can ever do this or It just sounds like there's just no hope not at all. The buddha is saying that absolutely There's a beautiful beginning. There's a beautiful middle and a beautiful end Suffering isn't something meant to discourage us. It's meant to free us because when we understand What's happening? That is what gives us empowerment. It allows us to transform us when we look at Rebirth in buddhism, Which is very figurative, But also very helpful for us to understand our condition and what's happening The buddha really explained us as fetters and fetters are essentially if you will like chains and so we're chained to this fourth cycle of rebirth And buddhism is unshackling those chains You are seeing the jailer if you will will with your true eyes. And you're like, You mean there's a door right there that I can just walk right out of? And the answer is yes. You know, So this forced rebirth is happening because we don't fully understand things. We don't see that door over there. The Buddha is there going right this way. You just have to make that effort. You have to walk out that door easier said than done, Which is why we practice in Buddhism. There's a lot there, But we can start making our steps towards that door. Buddhism teaches us that, Of course, Suffering, For that terminology we're using, Does exist. There are causes, But those causes are understood inside Buddhism. They can be understood by you, And when you understand them, Like I mentioned, They can be transformed, And that is the true meaning of Buddhism. Buddhism is liberation, Is liberation from the suffering, Which is the forced rebirth in the suffering. Endless cycle where of samsara where we have impermanence and the buddhist said impermanence is dukkha or if we want to use the terminology suffering so impermanence is suffering and because we don't understand impermanence that is what creates the suffering it's not impermanence itself it's how we understand it which we don't fundamentally understand which causes all that friction now if you're experiencing suffering right now that could be a emotional pain, Stress, Grief, Fear. Buddhism is not saying and the Buddha is not saying that doesn't exist or for you to pretend it's not there. And even like I mentioned, You need to seek help. It's inviting you to look at the Buddhist religious perspective, To look gently at it, Wants you to understand it and help you walk this path towards peace. That's important. We can make steps while doing everything we need to do in our current reality and world, Do those steps. But also, From the Buddhist perspective, Let's start working on the more fundamental deep nature as well as part of our practice. That, In a nutshell, Is suffering. And suffering, When you look at it, It doesn't have the power that it does have if you become awakened to it. And the more that you become a practicing Buddhist and engage with it, And it's not I'm not saying it's going to happen for everybody at the same level and same time, But let's say the more you understand what suffering is and the practices, The more it has less of a tight grip on you. That grip is going to release and that is what we want. Away from it and what your progress is on Buddhism as it relates to this. Thank you and I'll talk with you in our next episode.

Reviews

Very informative! Thank you.