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RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?

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Suppose we lay aside the issue of blissful states and temporary cessation of perception and feeling. Suppose we lay aside the issue of seeing the true nature of reality. All I'm asking is, is there any reason to believe that it is possible to transcend suffering permanently in this life, or is that just one of the wishful-thinking/misinterpretations that caught on? 

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about lessening stress and gaining more peace of mind or whatever -- I just wanna know whether anyone can confirm from their living reality that there is such a thing as life beyond suffering. 

Thank you.

RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?
Answer
8/26/14 11:57 AM as a reply to Anuthep K..
I don't think so.  If you watch the Shinzen Young Batgap interview the masters always have more work to do.  The Syrian torture chamber example.  But you can greatly reduce mental stress to a much lower level.  Some people have cured their depression with meditation (though they took years to do so).  The typical stress that people go through is way higher than it needs to be.  Masters also remind students that they need to keep meditating because the underlying habits can return.  I think it's worthwhile to pursue.  The new baselines you develop through disenchantment are permanent improvements but how far you can go is limited only by lifespan.

Remember the difference between emotional pain and physical pain.  Also remember that a person may not have too many troubles in life.  When the big stuff happens that will be the true test.

RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?
Answer
9/12/14 6:32 PM as a reply to Richard Zen.
Richard Zen:
I don't think so.  If you watch the Shinzen Young Batgap interview the masters always have more work to do.  The Syrian torture chamber example.


I was going to quote shinzen,too... but if you watch closely he says he does believe that there are people that can pass this rather extreme test.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbznm2NLais#t=2839

RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?
Answer
8/26/14 1:46 PM as a reply to Anuthep K..
Hello Anuthep, kind regards.

I think you asked yourself a good question.   When you say cessation of suffering it sounds to me you are referring to Nirvana.  I equate the two myself.

To sum, in my practice I am rather confidently headed towards that state or condition of existence, but I only get taste of it now and then, not yet stable.   As long as I have a contentious or conflicted reactive mind of course I will bring suffering upon myself.  What about others?  I also have to have no resistence to their compulsiveness and insanity -- to their thirst for sensation at the expense of others.  The practices I use promise to bring me to that endpoint where I can freely step away from the fray or voluntarily join the "fun".  I plan on finishing this lifetime.  Then I probably won't be heard from ever again ???   :-) 

However, I know of only two people, one of them the author, who have used these techniques and achieved such a state.   Again, the author laid it out so logically and simply that only my own conflicted mind would keep me from finishing his levels of activity required to achieve Nirvana.  I won't mention more about the author because he does not fit into the framework of discussions on this forum.  I do, however belong to other forums that freely discuss his work.

In the past three years I have gone from totally crashed and burned out to a conservative equanimity.  Suffering is a great spur.

Another point, when one has reached a state of "high human" they often see no need to continue.   They will eventually find themselves in the soup again some lifetime unless they reach for a more "Causal" or "beyond human" condition.    "To be human" and to have a human mind have to be laid out for examination.   Every "must/must not -ness" dissolved, especially the life oriented goals.  Even the Buddha was a returnee imho.  I view life as a learning curve, so no dogma here.

If not this lifetime, for sure for everyone I contemplate their end of suffering.

RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?
Answer
9/12/14 10:28 AM as a reply to Anuthep K..
What I am experiencing since few months, after what I consider significant and apparently stable attainments, is not a cessation of suffering but a cessation of my involvment with suffering. In other words, suffering still occurs in its various forms both physical and mental, but I see it, always, as something that does not involves me (since 'me' does not really exist).

Some practical examples: do I still get mad at people? yes (although way, way less than before, a 90% reduction, I would say). Do I suffer while or after getting mad? Not really. I do feel my heart beating, my voice raising and my thoughts accelerating and narrowing on the object of my hanger, but all that is happening at a distance, is not touching that tender spot (somewhere in the chest) that actually makes me feel pain. And then everything drops away in seconds or few minutes and I am back to equanimity. Before it took me hours, days even weeks to regain balance. Hyronically I am getting used to this state, which is very much mixed into a life that most of the times, in the end, feels very "normal". In retrospect though the change is dramatic. Also, as other pointed out, all this keeps changing, moving on and I susepct it will until my physical body exists.

Hope this helps

D

RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?
Answer
9/12/14 2:44 PM as a reply to Davide Zaccagnini.
Hello, Davide,

That was very heartening and well expressed, thank you.

Yes, from the "bottom" it does seem to be a restoration of normalcy.

RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?
Answer
9/12/14 11:45 PM as a reply to Davide Zaccagnini.
Like Davide has said, it was how suffering became less and less as pieces of 'old self' died.

Believe me, If you follow the Dharma, you can escape suffering.  I have tested it to the extreme.  I still feel extreme pain, but it is like I am listening to a song.  Even grief is something I can choose to explore at will.  The promise of Buddha is real!  KEEP GOING!!!!

RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?
Answer
9/12/14 6:56 PM as a reply to Anuthep K..
Anuthep K.:

I just wanna know whether anyone can confirm from their living reality that there is such a thing as life beyond suffering. 


Not me, but I'm still firmly convinced that it's possible. I don't believe that existence itself, and all things in it, are dukkha. I'm firmly convinced that the 'dukkha' aspect of all things can be much more precisely targeted and dealt with.

Yet to prove it!

RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?
Answer
9/12/14 11:40 PM as a reply to Anuthep K..
Yes, I assure you.  It is impossible for me to suffer.  I do not suffer.  

RE: The end of suffering - is it actually possible?
Answer
10/18/14 5:35 PM as a reply to Anuthep K..
I still go through pain, depression, fear, anger, anxiety, , low self esteem, confusion, general angst , highs, lows, bliss and desire but I havent actually suffered in about a year and a half at this stage.