Understanding The Truth Of Suffering
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Gelek Rimpoche ends this talk by saying that "all our sufferings are from within ourselves. It is my ego that created by suffering. It is my ego that created 'my side' and 'your side' and the attachment to 'my side' and the hatred for the other side. These we created internally. That is the real source of our suffering."
How can we "see that the chronic disease of self-cherishing is the cause of our unwanted suffering?" How can we learn to "put the blame where blame is due?"
Understanding The Truth Of Suffering
Use this form to ask Gelek Rimpoche a question. Gelek Rimpoche will answer selected questions from among those submitted by noon EST on the Wednesday following the teaching. A recording of the selected answers will be posted on the Monday following.
Understanding The Truth Of Suffering
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Comments
Not having Right View is the cause of our suffering (especially belief in the Self). Ironically the more we "take care and protect" the Self, the more suffering we experience. We suffer and try to find something to overcome our suffering, then we experience another type of suffering, it just changes forms. But we are all caught up in this trap of not being able to see suffering (not just understanding birth, old age, sickness and death is suffering. Clinging to the five aggregates is suffering. Wars are suffering), so we continue to spin the web of ignorance and craving, only to be entangled even more deeply. So not able to see clearly the causes of our suffering, we scratch at the wrong places. Rinpoche, can you please help us to improve our vision of seeing things so that we can recognise dukkha for dukkha and not manipulated by our ego?
Leader
This is going to be the subject for the next video talks by Rimpoche - it's all about the 2nd Noble Truth - Cause of Suffering. And it seems you are very much on the right track. As you already said very succinctly the ego is the root cause for all suffering and developing the right view is the solution to come to terms with what is self and what is ego. Clinging to the 5 aggregates is the core of that mistaken self identification. Particularly since these 5 aggregates, form, feeling, discrimination, karmic formations and consciousness, the very building blocks of our "personality", are perishable and impermanent, we can see that clinging to them as being permanent, independent and solid brings suffering. That instinctively held belief is not in accord with reality, yet it influences so much of what we think and do and thus causes unskillful actions, which in turn bring us and others suffering. Changing this mistaken view of how we exist is wisdom - the direct opposite of ego clinging - and that is the solution to remove all causes of suffering.
When suffering from a deeply imbedded pattern of response, do you have any tips on how to skillfully recognize the arising of the pattern and take a different turn before getting caught in it?