The Second of the Three Characteristics of Existence
In this eight-week course, we will investigate the unsatisfactory and ungovernable experience that often characterizes our lives. The Buddha taught that suffering arises due to our attachment and resistance to change. With practice, it is possible to meet unsatisfactoriness with equanimity, thus opening the door to insight.
Audio
Study Resources
- Venerable Ajahn Sumedho, Suffering Should Be Welcomed
- Scan of Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein’s book, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom and Bhante Gunaratana’s book Mindfulness in Plain English
- Dukkha by Ajahn Thanissaro
- SN 38.14 Dukkha Sutta: Stress, translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
- Understanding Dukkha by Ajahn Chah
- Deep Dukkha: Getting Down in the Trenches with the First Noble Truth by Toni Bernhard
- The Three Basic Facts of Existence II: Suffering (Dukkha) Collected Essays
- The Wonder of Presence by Toni Packer, Chapter 15 What is it that Dies?
- Brother Martin Was a Blues Man
Passage below from David Whyte’s The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship
What we withhold from ourselves is he willingness to understand our own imperfections. The strategic, intellectual self, looking in from the outside, cannot have the experience of sheer physical vulnerability that the deeper internal self must gain to walk through the door of self-compassion. Just as we must leave our partner with certain struggles that are entirely their own, so we must leave our deeper self alone to suffer through the confrontation with its own flaws and imperfections. By letting ourselves alone in this radical way, we actually demonstrate a freeing form of love for that emerging inner person. (335)
