Managing Your Suffering Is A Trap

so you've been saying um many times that the problem is that we are affected in the first place in other words we are we anger is possible lust is possible we get we can get confused suffering is possible suffering is possible for us H could you so so the goal really is to not be affected in the first place not to do something unac accounted yeah well the like uh that's the kind of fundamental difference that I often try to highlight is dhama the practice of dhama is not supposed to just help help you with

things help you with things that bother you help you deal with them it's basically supposed to appro your liability to it to things that bother you so it doesn't manage your suffering it removes possibility for you to suffer in the first place so you and that that's when that say a personal goal for your practice it should be I don't want to be affected by things to begin with not I want to have a perfect management technique that will always help me deal with whatever suffering have Arison see that's the problem already suffering has aason

you might be very skilled in dealing with it but you're not skilled in not having it arise in the first place and that's what should be your issue so that's why even you know the Buddha would often describe like his teaching uh that frees you from suffering brings sensation of being the the the ending of Bava the ending of of these things becoming for you manifesting enduring that you have to manage them then later means they're not anymore being has ceased they're gone so that is the goal of the dhama sensation of being not management

of things that are for you here and now sensation of suffering suffering s greed diversion delusion so I can get angry I can get angry but then I can find out a some sort of technique to manage my anger yeah oh when you get angry think these thoughts when you're angry do this when you're angry do that that's how you start you need to be well you need to want to be free from anger to begin with and then inevit ly your first effort will be directed at how to manage and subdue the anger but

you mustn't confuse that for the actual practice of the Dharma which if done rightly will uproot the anger and then there's nothing for you to manage no burden for you to have to do or deal with and if you don't do it you will then suffer no there is nothing to be dealt with cuz nothing affects you to begin with you say it's not the dummer that management is not the dummer exactly it's like the approximation of the dummer but it's not it's not the it's not the direct way one way only the way the

Buddha would describe the DH would always only result in purification of being like clar like um removing all the UNH wholesomeness and making Bava cease management doesn't do that only that direct insight into what it what appro suffering what is apprting the greed what is appr rooting the aversion and delusion so the dump so what is the Dum what is that is a direct path to for apprting yeah not the management so you are kind of responsible for whether things you're doing whether you've taken them as d whether you've taken them for the purpose of

uprooting the issues not dealing with it but like making yourself not liable to them even in the future or have you taken the dumb instruction as mean as a as a means sort of of helping yourself deal with these things so it's more like it's it's it's more it's determined by you by your attitude whether that instruction will be taken as the dama or is management that's the that's the difference I'm pointing at you know like you can do Sati patana which is the dama the the the way the Buddha described but you can do

it for the reasons of managing your suffering not for the reasons of uprooting it which means you are responsible for whether it's management or it's the dharm and yeah that's why the dhama rises in those who see you know I can like you can tell the dhama directly the Buddha would teach dhama to somebody but it wouldn't be the Dharma for them because they're not understanding it so there is no arising of dhma in their experience but he is a thing that Buddha said but they're not understanding it so the dhma can only arise on

that individual level the Dum the way knowing the the knowledge of the way the knowledge of the way of uprooting things basically that's what it is the knowledge of of of overcoming liability to suffering once and for all not just the knowledge of how to manage it skillfully when it arises so you can look and see I am subject to suffering I will things can go wrong well exactly it's it's it's really on that level of I will I will experience this I am liable to this that's we often said that that's why like we

say the wise man would reflect the young man who leaves the home I am prayed to suffering and not necessarily suffering now but the suffering will catch me at some point it's it's inevitable and you should start you should have the like ment basically Clarity enough mental capacity sufficiently enough to start seeing that as the actual root of the problem not the fact that you might like oh I suffer now I don't suffer tomorrow or whatever the fact is that I will at some point it's inevitable and that's the true problem even if I spend

the rest of my life skillfully avoiding all the major sufferings the fact is it will still have to I am still liable to it I still have to make the effort to avoid it that's already the issue the divine messenger you know the Buddha was neither sick nor old nor dying when he saw a sick aging dead person so you see that ah this is directly present in my experience as the inherent liability and that's where the issue is and that's why this this the difference in in practice U of management and the practice of

uprooting let's call it that way is basically in recognizing like okay so there is no lust in my experience here and now there is no greed in my experience here and now there is no delusion experience here okay I'm fine then no but now as the Buddha would say okay so you ask yourself further it's good that those things are not present here and now but your next question should now be so is it possible for non Arisen L to arise later on now it's not here but can it be here tomorrow oh have I

addressed that here and now not wait for tomorrow to address it and that's literally the crossroads between are you heading in the direction of uprooting it or are you heading direction of management and most people go down the path of management as in I'll deal with it when it arises failing to understand that liability to Future lust is a risen issue now you don't have to wait for it to arise is there a chance for non- manifested lust non- manifested aversion to manifest in my experience later if you're not sure means that is a chance

if you know for sure there you go you confirm it so there is a chance that these things will arise that's the issue for me now when those things are not present yeah anger is a problem possibility for anger is a problem yeah now not a not in the future it is now problem and that's that's the whole that's like the what differentiates your practice from are you aiming at the uprooting or are you just aiming at the skillful management and you heard that yourself before it's it's very common attitude of oh well you know

most of the time you are not lustful most of the time you're not angry so see you're doing fine if most of the time you're not angry means anger is still your liability your possibility which means you're as as angry like yeah you're not acting out of that anger as often as others but that's just cuz you learned some management of your anger you're certainly not uprooting anything if you have the attitude that most of the time these things don't arise for me yeah but could they arise at any time yes that's the issue you're

not seeing and that's why you're not approving anything uh so so you see that there is a problem because you see and know that there is the possibility yeah of so you have to train your mind to start seeing these possibilities as actually present cuz they are so you can think to yourself I can manage my lust or my anger quite well I'm I'm really skilled with that I know all these different techniques psychological methods to employ so that I can ease that anger ease that lust be C again if if if your way out

of suffering is skillful managing it you need need suffering to arise first so management requires suffering in order to manage it yeah so management cannot free you from that suffering it can only deal with it once it has arisen and most people that's that's the kind of problem that sort of relatively subtle I suppose is people as I said natural tendencies is to turn towards management first I they get rid of the problem do it skillfully whatever else um but there is the this kind of conflating that occurs then or rather confusion so through your

management of suffering you experience like less uh duka and uh and then at the same time you kind of start basically tedly assuming um hoping that all you have to do is manage your suffering long enough and then somehow magically liability to dooka will disappear so all I have to do is is is adhere to this management and skillful avoiding and so on and there's already implicit as I said wishful thinking that implies that you hope for suffering will then just poof eventually from your management it will just evaporate but it won't that's the point

the only way that suffering will evaporate is if you evaporate it if you understand the core pull the thorn out it won't come out by itself so uproot it so if you keep managing it with a hope that somehow it will disappear on the level of that I am still liable to it means your practice revolves around wishful thinking there is no direct Insight this is what to be done for freedom from suffering cuz yeah you don't want everyone's goal is to not have everybody everybody wants to to be fully free from suffering which means

everybody wants to not even be to discomfort and displeasure so I start doing matter matter matter matter matter every day every day every day and I stay calm I don't get angry but I have to keep doing me because I can so your calmness then is dependent upon the factor of you sustaining your effort towards whatever you perceive met contemplation to be which means if sometimes circumstances change you get sick or something happens or too many things happen you don't have enough time so you cannot engage to that necessary extent of your of your of

your meta contemplation means you back back within anger so you haven't really approved anger you just suppressed it with with a certain practices and as I said there is not not it's not inherently wrong to do that to begin with but it's inherently wrong to adopt a view that doing that appro things somehow magically the only way to appro things is to directly see what Ain is and I just described it what it is it's recognizing that liability the possibility of anger possibility of ill will possibility of sensuality possibility of delusion possibility of duah as

the duka right now not to wait for it when it when it occurs so you can see that possibility see the possibility so what do you do how do you uproot this possibility that tomorrow you might suffer you're being aware of that then then well it's sustaining that so can you sustain that if if you're not keeping the precepts can you sustain that elevated state of mind that recognizes liability to Dua without the actual daoka being present there if you're drinking smoking running around distracting yourself engaging in entertainment no impossible so that the noble a

for path that's how you do it right livelihood Right View first first of all see if your view still regards management as the way out of suffering you will not stay on the level of weight it's the possibility of suffering that's the problem there must be dealt with not the actual suffering when it arises so again how do I deal with that how do you deal with what the possibility but Noble for path yeah so right right view knowing that that's where the issue is not looking elsewhere right intentions uh not entertaining not delighting not

giving into greed diversion delusion through your speech through your body in your thoughts so on every front you need to build yourself up in order to be able to sustain that recognition of liability here and now it's what the issue is if you ask yourself how do I deal with the possibility of future suffering here and now you're basically asking how do I manage it how do I manage this possibility well that's what you're implying cuz you want to deal with it now you deal with it properly not not give into the view of management

by realizing that you have no right to resist it so you have to be careful if you when you start recognizing ah the liability of suffering is the problem for me you have to be careful to now not give into the attitude of wanting to manage that so I want it to end I want that possibility to beun so then you really have to understand where the duka is there is the possibility in itself duka is that possibility of future discomfort future disagreeable things is that in itself duka the idea yeah the thought of it

is it is it is that the duka no so I would so what's the duka then I would say it's that unpleasant feeling it's the displeasure that is that that is there when I have that idea right so I feel uncomfortable with the fact that in the future I will suffer pain which I am suffering presently because of that but it might be even so then the next question you should ask yourself is the U so the unpleasant feeling then that you have when you think those thoughts is that a do in itself because it

is what it is that pain well yeah the problem is I don't want it there so so what is then the Dua I mean I would say okay it's the craving to get rid of it okay so how is that manifested what is that practically in your experience resistance so yeah I resist so that's for me that sense of entitled of I I should not have this so you realize you suffer because you resist the discomfort even before the discomfort comes your way see you resist the thought of the possibility of discomfort here and now

and that's why here and now you experience dukka that's why the Buddha didn't say V is the cause of dukka he didn't say feelings are the cause of suffering he said tanha craving is the cause of suffering craving in regard to what you feel so you have such and such feeling when you have such and such thought present future or past but it's your implicit attitude towards the feeling of either craving towards it or away from it that's why that experience is Dua and see you would have not seen that if you haven't forced yourself

to discern the level of that possibility of dukka is dukka right now you wouldn't have seen that if you were just fully bent on managing the dooka as it arises or managing the dooka before it arises specific pain spefic so that's what I mean like even the even when people recognize sometimes the future duka liability to the Future dooka they can they can even take that as a as something to manage ah so I'll do this I'll do this so these things will not happen to me which carries the implicit view that Dua is in

those actual things or in your actual feelings and you don't see that it's in your attitude towards these things and yeah it's right now right here right now always present exactly always experiencing that pressure the relationship between tanha and duka between craving and suffering it's always present always simultaneously present presence of suffering presence of suffering means presence of tan presence of tanha means presence of suffering so to the extent that tanha is is present to that extent suffering is felt or to the extent the suffering is felt to that extent attitude of tanai is present

there is no delay or like few seconds later duka comes as a result of your craving no presence of suffering means presence of craving presence of craving means presence of suffering so that's why if you were to remove the presence of craving there is no suffering amidst things they used to cause you to suffer so much if you and that's why Liberation is visible and possible from suffering Here and Now so that's what I mean you need to start seeing as duah the liability to suffering not actually wait for the actual suffering and then manage

it cuz if you don't see that liability then you complacent if you're not seeing the liability means you're are not seeing where your craving is no you're not seeing daoka you're not seeing da yeah you need to see the duka first in order to see the cause of duka you can't just be dealing with the duka without understanding what duka is that's what what have said I'm teaching suffering and I'm teaching freedom from I'm teaching only two things suffering and freedom from it that's it so if you don't see that possibility of future discomfort is

already Dua now means you're not seeing the nature of duka to begin with so doesn't matter what happens to you you will not see it with the correct set of eyes so to speak MH and if you're not seeing what the daa is here and now already you're not going to see your craving CU I said to the extent the dua's felt to that extent craving is present but you're not seeing the felt daoka thus how can you see that which which determines it the actual craving so that's what I mean management looking to deal

with it over there without seeing where the actual daoka is because you give into that need to manage it and remove the pain as opposed to understand it it's it's it's inherently Bound in the wrong view it's inherently Bound in the wrong direction it's just like a way you could reflect why are you entitled to to to manage pain have you had saying it's like dwell on the nature of that dooka even the actual duka or the future do just just reflecting have you heard saying it's arising can you prevent circumstances from becoming disagreeable at

any point in the future is that even conceivable actually it's just a Pure Fantasy fantasy rooted in this complete misconceiving of the problem problem is in these things happening to me problem is not in me implicitly resisting the idea of these things happening to me so how do you stop resisting the pain how do you then stop craving or rather welcoming the pleasure how do you remove craving well we just outlined it by not trying to manage it but by seeing it here and now already and then by sense restraint because you cannot possibly be

welcoming pleasure and then just dealing with the unpleasant uh experiences when they arise you can't just selectively pick and choose which Cravings you want if there is any form of craving present means liability to suffering is present so you have to abandon craving for pleasure in as much you have to abandon craving against pain yeah so pain comes pleasure comes you you have no saying it's arising so why do you then constantly um entertain the attitude of I want this I don't want this I have right to want this I have right to not want

this why do you go after one try to avoid the other one where is your attitude rooted why are you doing it cuz it's because Pleasure and Pain is yeah it's felt it's a pressure it's prees you you feel the so it's painful to not do it yeah so you do it cuz you want to avoid pain cuz it's pressuring that pain is pain is pressuring so exactly so you don't know how to deal with duka thus you try to get rid of duka that's basically the the the the the nutshell of every management and

that's why say it's inherently wrong even if you're doing the dharm all the Buddha's instruction but you're taking them as management means you still entertain the same attitude because of which you suffer suffer in the first place which is I can handle this I want to get rid of it which is the attitude of craving so how can you then withstand the pressure how can you withstand the pressure that's but withstanding the pressure yeah but can you withstand the pressure if even your physical behavior is not kept in check can you withstand mental pressure then

impossible if your verbal Behavior behavior is not kept in check like the outpour of lust and anger through your physical action through your verbal action if you don't keep LD on that can you possibly withstand things mentally not a chance and how do you do that by doing it like how do you become stronger well by exposing yourself to things that will make you stronger by training I said it many times like even when I first read I suas I was bit puzzled but keeps kept talking about he trains himself thus a mon skill trains

himself does cuz you know you had all these Notions about Enlightenment and so it's like what is there to train you know you do things and then Enlightenment happens to you no you train the strength out of which wisdom comes which is what enlightenment is so that's why sense restraint is not optional that's what virtue is not you know oh I can do it for a while it's a necessary basis that has to remain throughout so you will be able to withstand the pressure by not giving into pressure by not giving into pressure you get

to outline what the actual problem is your liability to Future pressure to Future discomfort is already problem right here right now and you see that now because you haven't just blindly gave in to managing of the pressure in order to get rid of the pressure manage the stress in order to get rid of the stress practice the Dharma so you don't get this particular stress anymore I recognize that there's a possibility of suffering and I see that suffering right now it's suffering because I resist the displeasure here and now in regard to the possibility it's

suffering because I resist so I don't resisted that discomfort Here and Now mhm but I must have that must still have the idea that I don't have to keep on thinking about that there's a possibility of me suffering tomorrow no that will come and go so whatever basically I have to look at whatever I'm feeling right now yeah yeah cuz that's where the resistance occurs that's where craving is it's where you feel yeah I can put the the possibility of suffing I can put that aside because now I know what the problem is here and

now sure sure so I've I've come to that you start you contemplate the possibility of suffering when you forget what the problem is here and now or you're not seeing it well you could yeah like sadik Puta used to ask himself I think it was sadika what am I liable to anything to any suffering is something that yeah it was something like is there any suffering that can arise in yeah is there any any suffering that hasn't that the possibility of suffering hasn't been like addressed so to speak yeah and like no I don't see

any okay he still doesn't decide okay I'm done now no you remain with that Vigilant attitude you don't okay I'll check I'll check in every now and then and see if something has changed if possibility for lust aversion delusion possibility for pressure possibility for Central Pool possibility for suffering has that Arisen now not the actual suffering but the possibility for it being oh look yeah now I see yeah it could it's possible there you go that's your issue right there and then so what you do well you don't lose the sight of it to begin

with that feeling yeah you don't welcome it if it's the possibility to its pleasure and sensuality and you don't resist it if it's the possibility towards pain and and discomfort is there anything that is there a possibility for me uh indulging in welcoming indulging is too course already it's the result of pleasure in the future exactly so it's on the level of the possibility of pleasure or possibility of pain which means it's on the level of welcoming or kind of shying away from it's atler so think if someone brings me a pizza tomorrow I love

the taste of pizza will I will I welcome that pleasure pleasurable taste will I get lost and you will you will know that if you're looking at things rightly you will know that already now you'll know oh oh I can't wait even if you are perfectly restrained and don't express your joy over the particular type of food brought to you you already internally you know what it what it is and so that and that's the problem and but there's the work and that's the work exactly that's where the issue is and people would okay so

I will tell them never to bring that thing again cuz I like it too much it's like well you can do that as a way of like if you really can't deal with things so okay put it aside but that's really masking the issue the issue is not the pizza whatever people have brought to you the issue is you're unable to restrain yourself you're unable to have mind free from greed so now you're just trying to remove things that make you greedy but you're unable to not be wanting pleasure you are unable to exact to

to to to not welcome that pressure of that pleasure you're unable which means that's why you will remain liable you can spend 100 Years of that management you will never appro your sensuality so you feel the pressure of pain that resistance against it and you stop well exactly you don't try to get rid of it you don't try to psychologize manage explain prevent things from arising obviously if something obviously UNH wholesome like like like when that man came and offered wanted to offer his daughter to the Buddha and was said no don't even bother I

will not accept that yeah like certain things cannot be done rightly such as sexual intercourse and and so on but there are things that there's nothing like there's nothing wrong in eating food whether it's tasty or not but it's wrong in eating it with sensual reasons and you eat and you eat the you eat your food with sentual reasons when where you are unable to to not be overwhelmed by that uh pressure towards accepting pleasure so that's what would would say like when you when you practice in regard to the food you not like you

stop eating no you eat mindfully you maintain the reasons for your eating clearly and you eat while those reasons are present reasons for health sustaining the body so that you can practice further not reasons of beautifications Chasing The Taste and so on but if you just think if I avoid the food I don't have to deal with these reasons well you're solely mistaken you're just covering up the basis of your sensuality so even if you just eat horrible stuff all the time because you don't want to experience experience any sensal joy of the taste you

still need to look at these reasons and keep the Vigilant eye on them because that's where sensuality is rooted not in the actual taste so am I welcoming am I delighting am I accepting this Elation on account of central prospect that is pleasing to me that's the issue my acceptance not seeing the danger in it not the maintain main not that's the issue not the issue is oh I must not have this thing arise for me at all so call people tell them never to bring their food never you'll never see anything you'll never hear

anything you'll never taste anything agreeable me you you're not you're misconceiving where the issue is yeah and you're maintaining the issue well you remain fully within it yeah that's why you you're not you're not stepping outside of central domain there might be someone that comes along and that's why the aism the atmos form like you know Giants you know the the perfect practice of of of obsessive hinga nonviolence not eating not harming anything it's AR misguided CU it's fully mispred they don't see where the issue really is you know avoiding food any and just eating

every third day or something to the point of in the end you die on account of starvation and that's like the ultimate goal of a GI yet you realize you fully remain Bound by the central domain never a step closer to escape it it was the the James that said that by avoiding things then you you you diminish them you diminish the pressure but where is the Buddhist ways well because it's not always the same things you don't always have one attitude towards all things if you were to only have the attitude of accepting everything

every type of feeling every type of perception then Giants would have been right all you need to do is avoid it cuz you always accept it but but that's not the case you're not you're not accepting the the unpleasurable feelings you are actually trying to get rid of them you're only accepting certain things but then you're resisting some other things and so it's not a blanket rule always avoid because it's not a blanket experience that that's always the same that's why what you do whether you avoid or whether you have to basically endure is determined

by how you feel and you don't even feel the always the same in regard to the same things sometimes one same food might make you happy sometimes might make you unpleasant sometimes might might make you indifferent which means you have three different types of feel you have three different types of attitude that will then exhibit the craving but if you always avoid everything you're ignoring 2third of that picture and that's why you will remain ignorant MH so how can you then know when to reject and when to accept like when you're resisting gratuitously the future

Prospect of suffering should you be rejecting that even more no you need to accept that these possibilities are there present and you have no say in it that's how you can then stop resisting it gratuitously and thus you approve the suffering or should you then accept the the Prospect of future pleasure that you already delighted in no you must reject that you must contemplate the danger in it so how do you know what you do well by learning how to be properly mindful of an enduring feeling because that's where things converge that's where things are

rooted you can't just set take a set of behavior that I always do this when it's this and this when it's that no first you just need to remain mindful of what's the present enduring feeling and you will know then what attitude is there if the pleasant enduring feeling is of pleasure and agreeability means you have the attitude of welcoming it by default but you must so that's that's what you reject you reject your welcoming of this Central pleasure you don't blame like giants the actual object of your central pleasure so you will know what

attitude is there by correctly understanding what present feeling is there that's the root of the problem there's the the it's always present the root of the problem is always present it's not in the past it will not be in the future that's the root of the problem that attitude exactly and the root of that present route is basically your attitude towards the present enduring feeling so it's whatever suffering will arise in the future is always that's the gayway it's within that that doesn't disappear when the suffering arrived that remains its vessel so to speak its

framework as I say because no matter of future discomfort and suffering can affect you unless you're holding on to that vessel of rejecting it like the vessel of rejection basically of any discomfort that's your mindset so anything that comes of discomfortable nature is going to make you suffer because of your attitude of not wanting it you remove the attitude of that cud is at of not wanting the discomfort not necessarily seeking it out but certainly not trying to get rid of it when when it's there exactly when it's circumstantially arise which inevitably will ah then

you're not cultiv in that gratuitous mindset of of resistance which means your craving is now truly diminishing and same you will diminish your craving when you don't cultivate Gru's mindset of welcoming as the what would say delighting entertaining the Notions of current and future pleasure like why you like when you ask yourself am I liable to Future cenal desire oh yes why because here and now I'm still holding it there I'm still welcoming coming the prospect of it here and now I haven't approved it not I haven't dealt with it rightly once it has arisen

no it's on the level of that possible future sensuality is only possible because right here right now I am still valuing it I'm still haven't seen the thorough danger in it I'm still on some level delighting in it and that Delight is to be dealt with Here and Now not in the future when that thing arises