There are times when I wonder how some people manage to survive with all the difficulties life has to throw at them. Over the past few months whilst I have been "off-line", I have been giving support to a number of people who's lives have been turned upside down with the sort of problems that the majority of us hope and pray will never happen to us
1. One couple's baby was born 16 weeks premature and spent its very short life in the confines of an incubator, unable to hold and feed their baby, their only contact was the view through the perspex lid.
2. A very intelligent man who is now living in political exile with his wife and daughter's but who's dream is one day to return to his native country and start his life again.
3. Another who is suffering from out and out bullying in the work place.
4. Two men in different companies suffering with stress at work. One of them is not sleeping at night and going through a relationship break down.
All these people have had problems that put mine into perspective and I realize that my problems are insignificant, the result of my own deluded mind. In truth we all suffer from time to time, our very existence is “suffering”, we do experience joy in this life, but life can't be all joy; even in the most fortunate of lives there must be suffering. In the same way that we can not have any concept of “light” without the concept of “dark”, or “hot” with out “cold”, “good” without “bad” so “joy” would be non existent without the experience of “Suffering”.
Buddhists use the Pali word “Dukkha” to describe what we in the west call suffering, (although suffering is not a direct translation of dukkha). Dukkha implies the generally unsatisfactory and imperfect nature of life. In Vol. II of The Three Basic Facts of Existence (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1983) Francis Story describes Dukkha or Suffering as:
Disturbance, irritation, dejection, worry, despair, fear, dread, anguish, anxiety; vulnerability, injury, inability, inferiority; sickness, aging, decay of body and faculties, senility; pain/pleasure; excitement/boredom; deprivation/excess; desire/frustration, suppression; longing/aimlessness; hope/hopelessness; effort, activity, striving/repression; loss, want, insufficiency/satiety; love/lovelessness, friendlessness; dislike, aversion/attraction; parenthood/childlessness; submission/rebellion; decision/indecisiveness, vacillation, uncertainty.
Siddhartha Gautama Buddha realised the existence of suffering when gave his first sermon at the deer park near Benares (Varanasi), India, on the “Four Nobel Truths” and the “Nobel Eightfold Path”.
The Four Nobel Truths:
1. One couple's baby was born 16 weeks premature and spent its very short life in the confines of an incubator, unable to hold and feed their baby, their only contact was the view through the perspex lid.
2. A very intelligent man who is now living in political exile with his wife and daughter's but who's dream is one day to return to his native country and start his life again.
3. Another who is suffering from out and out bullying in the work place.
4. Two men in different companies suffering with stress at work. One of them is not sleeping at night and going through a relationship break down.
All these people have had problems that put mine into perspective and I realize that my problems are insignificant, the result of my own deluded mind. In truth we all suffer from time to time, our very existence is “suffering”, we do experience joy in this life, but life can't be all joy; even in the most fortunate of lives there must be suffering. In the same way that we can not have any concept of “light” without the concept of “dark”, or “hot” with out “cold”, “good” without “bad” so “joy” would be non existent without the experience of “Suffering”.
Buddhists use the Pali word “Dukkha” to describe what we in the west call suffering, (although suffering is not a direct translation of dukkha). Dukkha implies the generally unsatisfactory and imperfect nature of life. In Vol. II of The Three Basic Facts of Existence (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1983) Francis Story describes Dukkha or Suffering as:
Disturbance, irritation, dejection, worry, despair, fear, dread, anguish, anxiety; vulnerability, injury, inability, inferiority; sickness, aging, decay of body and faculties, senility; pain/pleasure; excitement/boredom; deprivation/excess; desire/frustration, suppression; longing/aimlessness; hope/hopelessness; effort, activity, striving/repression; loss, want, insufficiency/satiety; love/lovelessness, friendlessness; dislike, aversion/attraction; parenthood/childlessness; submission/rebellion; decision/indecisiveness, vacillation, uncertainty.
Siddhartha Gautama Buddha realised the existence of suffering when gave his first sermon at the deer park near Benares (Varanasi), India, on the “Four Nobel Truths” and the “Nobel Eightfold Path”.
The Four Nobel Truths:
(1) that existence is suffering (dukkha);
(2) that this suffering has a cause (samudaya);
(3) that it can be suppressed (nirodha); and
(4) that there is a way (magga) to accomplish this by following the Nobel Eightfold Path, (the way out of suffering).
The Nobel Eightfold Path.
1) Right Seeing.
The Nobel Eightfold Path.
1) Right Seeing.
(2) Right Thought.
(3) Right Speech.
(4) Right Action.
(5) Right Livelihood.
(6) Right Effort
(7) Right Mindfulness.
(8) Right Contemplation.
Whilst I can try my best to follow the Nobel Eightfold Path and find my way out of suffering I find that Tai chi helps me over come the "Stress" that accompanies the suffering, it helps me by "stilling my troubled mind" by helping me to relax and put my troubles back into perspective.
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