Meditation on Suffering All of the different categories can be summarized into three suffering of suffering, the stub your toe, in your face sufferings suffering of change on beach, hot, go into water, cold, go onto beach all pervasive no matter where born, you suffer So we will use this meditation tonight to explore this. Motivation: Sit comfortably and relax. Generate a positive motivation for doing the meditation, such as wishing to better understand suffering in order to do what is necessary to free everyone- yourself and others- from all problems, pain, and unhappiness. There are three aspects of suffering to contemplate. Go through each one slowly as you like. Don t just make a mental checklist of the points but bring your emotions and intuition into the meditation; really feel every example of suffering as if you were experiencing it right now. 1. The suffering of suffering This includes all obvious forms of suffering, physical and mental, such as the severe sufferings arising from war, terrorism, natural disasters, famine, violent crime, but it also includes all the normal, everyday problems your body experiences: aches and pains, heat and cold, hunger and thirst, bad eyesight, weight problems, the list is endless. 1
Recall these experiences and how we are rarely without one or more of them. Think of the physical suffering you will experience when you are old. Picture yourself at the age of eighty or ninety, your body degenerated and wrinkled and not functioning properly. Finally, there is death. Think of the different ways you could die and the suffering of the body then. Contemplate the fact that it is the nature of the body to change, meet with pain, degenerate, and eventually die. Now look at your state of mind at this moment. Are you anxious? Depressed? Angry? Confused? Agitated? Think of the mental suffering that is likely to come in the future when people close to you die or leave you, when you die, or when all the other occur in our lives that are likely to cause unhappiness to one degree or another. Expand your thoughts to include the experiences of others. All beings, too, are going through some form of mental or physical pain- from the slightest discomfort to the greatest of suffering. Start with people you know- your friends, relatives, and neighbors. Some are sick, some old; others are depressed, anxious, dissatisfied, lonely. Then think about the people you don t know, whose lives are plagued by war, poverty, unemployment, racism, disease, political oppression. 2
We also share this world with animals and other creatures. Contemplate their day-to-day suffering: hunger, pain, cold, lack of freedom, fear of being killed. See if you can generate the understanding that all these countless living beings all react with joy to kindness and beauty, with fear to pain and harm, and with anger to whatever threatens the peace of ourselves and our loved ones. We all try to be happy and to avoid problems, but as long as we are unenlightened we meet with one suffering situation after another. 2. The suffering of change This level of suffering refers to the experiences we normally think of as pleasure or happiness. They are called suffering because they do not last. Every nice experience comes to an end without fully satisfying us or relieving our problems. It leads, instead, to the desire to repeat it, in the hope that we will find the satisfaction we are looking for. Think of any pleasant experience: a nice meal, sex, a day at the beach, skiing, music, movie, a cigarette, a beautiful sunset- how long does the pleasure last? Are any of these experiences fully satisfying? If you think they are fully satisfying, then why do you repeat them again and again? Another reason pleasant experiences are considered suffering is because they are not true, pure pleasure. If they were, the pleasure would continue, and even increase, the more we engaged in them. Is this what happens, or does the pleasure decrease and even turn into misery? 3
For example, when you are hungry and eat something, at first you feel good because the discomfort of hunger diminishes, but what would happen if you kept eating more and more? You would feel increasingly uncomfortable, and may even become sick. Or sitting by a fire on a chilly day: at first it is such a pleasure, but soon we must more away because it becomes too hot. Look carefully at you life to see whether or not this is true. Recall some good experiences: did they last? Did they truly satisfy you? Is the pleasure is true pleasure, why doesn t it stay with you indefinitely? Can you think of any example of unchangeable, lasting happiness in your life or in anyone else s? Contemplate how everything changes; how pleasurable experiences do not last but lead inevitably to dissatisfaction, irritation, boredom, or loneliness. From one point of view, compared to the suffering of suffering, these experiences are pleasant. But from another point of view, compared to the pure, lasting bliss of liberation and enlightenment, these experiences are another kind of suffering. 3. All-pervading suffering This refers to our very existence as ordinary, unenlightened beings, with our mind caught up inextricably in delusions and karma. Although the nature of our mind is clear and has the potential to experience the pure, enduring peace and bliss of enlightenment, we are unable to keep it free of disturbed, unhappy thoughts and feelings even for an hour, or a few minutes. 4
And although we want nothing but pleasant, happy experiences, it s impossible to go through life, or even one day, without experiencing problems. The situation of being stuck in this cycle, this complex web of problems, is itself all-pervading suffering. Contemplate how there are countless living beings caught up in this seemingly endless cycle of taking rebirth in a suffering existence again and again, just as you are. Draw conclusions from any insights you may have had during this meditation. Acknowledging the painful, dissatisfactory nature of life is quite difficult, but it is the only way out. Until we stop running away from the reality of suffering, we will continue to circle in confusion. Now, conclude your session optimistically, with the determination to use your life skillfully and do what you can to overcome suffering. Dedication: Dedicate all your good intentions and energy to the growth of insight in yourself and all others. 5