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That's a pretty extensive list! Thanks Netti...

Talk about impermanence! I had a whole long reply to your comment and it disappeared into cyberspace. :) Since I don't have time to type the whole thing again, I'll summarize. I think it's very important to investigate what suffering means. If you don't know what it is, if you don't have a...

:) That's very kind of you. For me, suffering is wanting things to be other than they are. That's it. Everything else is a variation on that theme.

Yes, I think that's true. My teacher talks about suffering in the very classic way mentioned on this site... the suffering of change, the suffering of suffering, etc. He talks about it being this sense of things being "not quite right" or dissatifactory. Another way I've heard it taught is a...

Are you asking me what about the etymology of the word? Or are you pointing out the definition? :confused:

Hi again. I was thinking about the traditional Tibetan Buddhist view of suffering on my drive into work. Unfortunately, I don't have the exact quote I was thinking of, but thanks to Google, information is always near at hand. :) Anyway, here's to continued discussion... [/I] [/INDENT]

That's really interesting, Netti. Thanks so much!

These are great points. Thanks for raising them. From experience, I've seen that some people with chronic physical disabilities suffer greatly psychologically while others do not. But really, suffering is such an individual thing and we know so little about the process of pain, although we're...

If we have a headache, there is pain. But there is also the pain of worrying about it. Such as "Wow, this headache is really bad. I wonder if aspirin will help? Maybe it won't go away. Or maybe it's a brain tumor." That kind of thing. I mean the story we tell ourselves about the pain. Does...

Thanks for clarifying. I think there's no doubt that having a body is a challenge... it gets old and decays, sometimes pretty painfully. In my view, there is a difference between suffering and pain. Pain is pretty much unavoidable but suffering, which I think of as the conceptual overlay we put...

What does suffering mean to you? And what to you mean by "in any absolute sense?" Z

Of course it's real. I'm not saying that it isn't.

The thing about suffering being an illusion is that saying it's illusion doesn't mean it doesn't have the power to hurt, it means that it doesn't inherently exist. "Empty yet appearing" is the phrase I've heard most. So, the ear twisting is empty, so you can't say it actually exists, but it...

Oops. :rolleyes: Z

Thanks vaj. Missed you too. This is very encouraging, I think. In the absolute, there's no giver, no receiver, and nothing given, right? ;) Ouch... head hurts. I'm completely out of my depth, instead of the usual only partly...

Everyone is compassionate, even if they don't continually manifest it like a Buddha would. To me, every time you help someone with their best intentions in mind and your best intentions in your heart, you are being compassionate.

Hi Netti-Netti. There's no doubt that it's really difficult to be compassionate and open without being a masochist or a doormat. Can't say that I have that one down... :)

This is a really good quetion. I've strugged with this a lot. When you work for the welfare of others, you see how much they still suffer -- basically how we all still dwell in ignorance -- and your heart breaks. This is very useful to help us drum up aspiration to practice and to help others...

Hello. I recently found this article and have been passing it along to all interested in Buddhism in the West. I think it's helpful. Metta, Z http://www.siddharthasintent.org/Pubs/West.htm

I can't help jumping in here to ask a question ... if everyone is the sum of their experiences, then doesn't the fact that that being has had those particular experiences in some way lend the being a form and a "self"? It is like water that arranges itself to a container ... it is still water...