Perspective Shift:

1. Suffering doesn’t block awakening, it catalyzes it. Most people don’t begin their spiritual path because everything is fine. It’s suffering that cracks the surface of the self, but only when we turn toward it with open-heartedness and support does it become the doorway to transcendence. Trauma and revelation aren’t

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The whole of the ancient, master teachings on suffering come down to this: Suffering is the notion “This isn’t it,” and it’s variants such as, “I can’t bear this, it shouldn’t be happening,” and “I have to know how this will turn out” and “What if it gets worse?”

Freedom, waking up and fearlessness come down to the simplicity of, “Wait a minute,

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What seems to change, when you perceive wholeness, is that you experience suffering as part of a larger picture, with the assurance that the larger picture is basically wonderful. But this might sound conceptual or philosophical, like a long series of thoughts. And that is wrong.

The feeling of wholeness is simple and immediate. It’s that the... See more

Well, the Buddha taught that this misconception is actually the primary cause of our suffering, and keeps us from finding lasting contentment. He laid out a path to overcome this ignorance, and see ourselves and the world more and more for what they actually are.

Seeing things more clearly brings about “insight”, and these insights change us.

They

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The word nirvana points to the state of a fire that has gone out. The Buddha often described our present world as a house on fire, and living beings as burning up with passions. To achieve the goal of Buddhist practice meant to "cool down" and put out these flames of suffering. However, later Buddhist thinkers such as the composers of a text called

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