In these blog posts, I will share key points from books I’m reading. Today I am sharing from “Mindfulness in Plan English” by Bhante Bhante Gunaratana, so that together we can benefit from these noble truths and transform our lives. I’d love to hear from you in the comments section!
- You are going to run into problems into your meditation. Everybody does. Don’t think you are special.
- Life is composed of joys and miseries. They go hand in hand. Meditation is no exception. You will experience good times and bad times, ecstasies and fear.
- Your ability to deal with some issue that arises in meditation will carry over into the rest of your life and allow you to smooth out big issues that really bother you. If you try to avoid each piece of nastiness that arises in mediation, you are reinforcing the habit that has already made life seem so unbearable at times.
- Buddhism advises to examine your misery to death. If you are miserable you are miserable; that is the reality, that is what is happening, so confront that. Look it square in the eye without flinching. When you are having a bad time, examine that experience, observe it mindfully, study the phenomenon and learn its mechanics. The way out of a trap is to study the trap itself, learn how it’s built. The trap can’t trap you if it has been taken to pieces. The result is freedom.
- Pain is inevitable, suffering is not. Pain and suffering are two different animals. Buddhism advises you to invest time and energy in learning to deal with unpleasantness, because some pain is unavoidable.
