Class 1 - Sep 16 - What is Suffering
All,
enjoy the forum.
Here are two Suttas (Discourses) I promised:
1) The Buddha's First Sutta (Four Noble Truths):
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.piya.html
2) The Dart of Painful Feeling (Sallatha Sutta):
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn36/sn36.006.nypo.html
Weekly Contemplation: What is Duhkha?
What's the Difference Between Latte Duhkha and Refugee Camp Duhkha?
How's Practice Going?
Personality-dependent dissociation of absolute and relative loss
A negative outcome can have motivational and emotional consequences on its own (absolute loss) or in comparison to alternative, better, outcomes (relative loss). The consequences of incurring a loss are moderated by personality factors such as neuroticism and introversion.juniper jncia However, the neuronal basis of this moderation is unknown. Here we investigated the neuronal basis of loss processing and personality with functional magnetic resonance imaging in a choice task.cissp certification We separated absolute and relative financial loss by sequentially revealing the chosen and unchosen outcomes. With increasing neuroticism, activity in the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) preferentially reflected relative rather than absolute losses. Conversely, with increasing introversion,network+ questions activity in the right lateral OFC preferentially reflected absolute rather than relative losses. These results suggest that personality affects loss-related processing through the lateral OFC, and propose a dissociation of personality dimension and loss type on the neuronal level.
What's the Difference Between Latte....
I think they're the same. The book makes the point that suffering comes from attachment. The source of suffering in the first case is attachment to the idea of drinking coffee. It's impossible to see the camp through the eyes of a refugee. I think most people are responding to their own attachment to their own surroundings when they think about the suffering of a refugee.
The Difference
I'm not sure that I agree. While duhkha is duhkha, so to speak, there seems to me to be a difference in quality between Latte Duhkha and Refugee Camp Duhkha.
Latte Duhkha would be a kind of suffering based on "dissociation from the pleasant" (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta). While attachment is the foundation for this duhkha, it is an attachment of luxury.
Conversely, Refugee Camp Duhkha is suffering of "association with the unpleasant," as well as sickness, death, and "not to receive what one desires" (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta). The attachments that are the basis for this suffering are far more organic and universal.
I would imagine that only a small percentage of the world's population would suffer Latte Duhkha; a far greater percentage would experience Refugee Camp Duhkha in those circumstances. The universal suffering seems to me less ambiguous and more severe.
Namaste.
P.S. - My name is Bryan. I'm a homelistener for this course. As much as I would love to be there in person, I live in Tennessee; the commute would be a bit difficult. If any member of the class would ever like to contact me, you can find me through my website: http://cancercanbiteme.com. Take care.
Practicing...
SO much harder than I thought. Seems to work better on work days than on weekends for me...maybe because I can schedule it into my days?
I do have to say that the discussion about the 3 Prajnas (especially the idea of the cup turning over) has pretty much got me spinning. I've been thinking a LOT about how my own cup turns over (and how often!) and am thankful to now have an image to grasp onto when that awful feeling emerges again, and to take note of the moments when I feel my cup begin to turn.
Thanks, Ethan!
accepting "what is"
Hey, we were talking about this in class and I referenced a sutra I thought was discussed in a TNH book but it turns out it's from... Eckhart Tolle in "The Power of Now." But the lesson could easily be from a sutra:
"For example, if you were stuck in the mud somewhere, you wouldn't say, 'Okay, I resign myself to being stuck in the mud.' Resignation is not surrender. You don't need to accept an undesirable or unpleasant life situation. Nor do you need to deceive yourself and say there's nothing wrong with being stuck in the mud. No. You recognize fully that you want to get out of it. You then narrow your attention down to the present moment without mentally labeling it in any way. This means there is no judgment of the Now. Therefore there is no resistance, no emotional negativity. You accept the 'isness' of this moment. Then you take action and do all you can to get out of the mud."
So it doesn't do us any good to resist "what is," whether "it" is a latte with the wrong foam consistence, or the fact that we're refugees. Once we accept what is, we can take action to "get out of the mud."
acceptance is not approval
helps me to remember that acceptance is not the same as approval, nor does acceptance imply approval.
testing
my comment seem destined for the ether. and keep getting lost. hmmmm.
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