The Good The Bad and The Ugly

I've started using Jonny's nap time for my meditation time. It's working pretty well, but now I miss my naps w/ her. =(

So yesterday I was talking about suffering, the first noble truth that Buddha taught. One thing I found sort of weird the first time I heard of the 4 noble truths...the fact that they're called "noble truths." I mean, sure "Life is suffering." That I could see was "a truth" I guess. But then the second one, "Causes of suffering." That didn't make sense. Then, "Cultivation of the 8-fold path?" What the hell? These don't sound like truths to me...just bullets or statements. That's really what they are.

If you really try to embrace suffering, you're bound to come to the conclusion that suffering, like everything else, has a cause. Suffering results from something. Yes, it causes things too, but no one can deny it is a result of something. This is "The Second Noble Truth," cue dramatic music please.

It's really no big deal, even though it is one of the key ingredients to the whole Buddhist method of living. So what if suffering has a cause? Who cares? Well, every suffering situation may have a different specific cause, but they all have one thing in common. All suffering shares a common bond. It all results from a desire or craving for things to be otherwise. If you are satisfied w/ situation X, then that situation causes no suffering.

It can be a little something or a huge one, and that will determine whether your suffering is little or huge. My daughter is in the ICU. I really want her to get well. I'm not satisfied w/ her situation. I suffer because of that. I worry. I stress. I want to hurry time along to when she's healthy. I want her care to be even better. I want to hold her. I want my wife to be at ease about it. I want her breathing to improve. The list goes on and on and on. And that's just one situation. What about how...I'm not comfortable. I want to move my leg. TV sucks, change the channel please. It's almost as if every freaking thing we come in contact with is unsatisfactory. Even that cake that seemed so satisfactory. It was simply temporarily relieving the slight suffering caused from the desire to have it, taste and smell it, consume it. It's pleasure giving abilities are a direct result of the suffering it relieves.

So lately I've been trying to "embrace suffering" by seeing "causes of suffering". Causes of suffering could also be stated as wants, needs, or desires. It's the same thing. Next time you want something, take a millisecond, and see it as suffering. It's interesting. That cake for instance. It never occurs to you at first to be anything but pleasurable.  And that thing that caused your suffering...loosing your wallet, never seemed anything but bad, but it's a result of the comfort you feel by having your wallet and all the things it provides to you. It's one in the same. There isn't really any difference. Just how we view it.