What Suffering Can Meditation Alleviate?

[With English interpretation] Ven. Pomnyun Sunim's (법륜스님) Answer to “What suffering can meditation alleviate?”
A question is chosen from the weekly Sunday meditation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim(법륜스님).

Peace of mind is only one step away.

Transcript

You said that the goal of meditation is freeing yourself from suffering.

I wasn't sure what kind of suffering you had in mind.

Facing inconveniences in my daily life,

Is this also suffering?

You said that the goal of meditation is freeing yourself from suffering.

I wasn't sure what kind of suffering you had in mind.

Facing inconveniences in my daily life,

Is this also suffering?

The largest suffering is usually fear from death.

You can actually free yourself from this fear of death.

Also,

You can free yourself from the fear or anxiety you encounter when you encounter something unfamiliar.

Whether it's an unfamiliar person,

Strange new place,

Or new task you have to do.

So there are many times our mind is anxious and nervous.

And you can free yourself from that sense of anxiety.

Also free yourself from hatred or rage at anyone.

Or anger or frustration.

Free yourself from those.

Or sadness,

Grief,

Or depression.

Free yourself.

So I think suffering can refer to freeing yourself from all these types of negative emotions or negative thinking.

But just because you're freeing yourself from these negative emotions doesn't mean that you're constantly in a state of excitement or positive excitement.

Your mind is neither excited nor depressed.

It's in a state of peace.

And free yourself from a negative state of emotions.

No matter what task you're faced with,

If it's something familiar,

You do it as well as you are familiar with it.

If it's something new,

Then you ask as you go along.

If it's something you made a mistake on,

You self-correct as you do it.

So no matter what you're faced,

You just do it as the best of your abilities.

Even if you encounter a negative emotion,

You can immediately free yourself from that because you realize it's coming from either your own desire,

Your own sense of expectations,

Or your own attachment to a certain opinion.

Don't everybody want to be at this state?

That's what we mean when we say freeing yourself from the suffering.