Samsara Unbearable: How to deal with it?

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Strive4Karuna
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Samsara Unbearable: How to deal with it?

Post by Strive4Karuna »

Samsara is so difficult to deal with because everything is so pointless I just feel despair when I let go of indulging in sensual pleasures even though I understand they are completely meaningless.

Can people share their experience with the Jhana's and your experience with it in helping to deal with the difficulty of samsara? Can people share with me their experience with their realization of the pointlessness of life, the suffering of life and how they dealt with the following despair that followed this realization that we are bound to such a useless existence of suffering while the goal of nirvana seems so far away.
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kirk5a
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Re: Samsara Unbearable: How to deal with it?

Post by kirk5a »

Well, here's my tip for you: stop dwelling on samsara and find your mind.
Ajaan Dune Atulo wrote: "The mind sent outside is the origination of suffering.
The result of the mind sent outside is suffering.
The mind seeing the mind is the path.
The result of the mind seeing the mind is the cessation of suffering."
http://www.dhammatalks.net/Books/Ajaan_ ... Legacy.htm
"When one thing is practiced & pursued, ignorance is abandoned, clear knowing arises, the conceit 'I am' is abandoned, latent tendencies are uprooted, fetters are abandoned. Which one thing? Mindfulness immersed in the body." -AN 1.230
SarathW
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Re: Samsara Unbearable: How to deal with it?

Post by SarathW »

Don’t worry about the problem, work for the solution one tiny step at a time.
At least you know that you are one step closer.
:)
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
mal4mac
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Re: Samsara Unbearable: How to deal with it?

Post by mal4mac »

Strive4Karuna wrote:Samsara is so difficult to deal with because everything is so pointless I just feel despair when I let go of indulging in sensual pleasures...
Anapanasati?
- Mal
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reflection
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Re: Samsara Unbearable: How to deal with it?

Post by reflection »

I'd contact a teacher about it if you have this opportunity. If teachings are wrongly understood or wrongly applied, they may lead to unwanted results like despair. In person it is easier for somebody to see these kinds of things and give suitable advice.

But as a general advise that can't really be misinterpreted I'd say: don't forget practices that lead to joy, like (reflection on) generosity, (reflection on) virtue, contemplating the Buddha & sangha, metta meditation.

:anjali:
pegembara
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Re: Samsara Unbearable: How to deal with it?

Post by pegembara »

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And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.
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manas
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Re: Samsara Unbearable: How to deal with it?

Post by manas »

Strive4Karuna wrote:Samsara is so difficult to deal with because everything is so pointless I just feel despair when I let go of indulging in sensual pleasures even though I understand they are completely meaningless.

Can people share their experience with the Jhana's and your experience with it in helping to deal with the difficulty of samsara? Can people share with me their experience with their realization of the pointlessness of life, the suffering of life and how they dealt with the following despair that followed this realization that we are bound to such a useless existence of suffering while the goal of nirvana seems so far away.
It sounds like you are having a difficult day, which is something I can relate to. Try to have more patience: with yourself, with the Path, and with life in general.

The liberating insight that will free us from the shackles of sense desires, might be a long way off. So in the meantime we need to just do the best we can. So long as you keep to the five precepts, indulging in sense pleasures as a layman isn't anything to be ashamed of. Just remain mindful, and reduce the indulgence gradually over time. Or you can have special days when you voluntarily abstain from them more decisively, such as an eight-precept day. But that's optional, the essential thing is to keep five precepts really well.

A good meditation can temporarily give some relief from sensual desire, too. I've had a few where, for a few hours after the meditation, I did not feel like indulging in certain 'allowable' lay activities (use your intuition here). The effect wears off of course (at least so far it always has), but it is interesting to examine oneself at that time, to look within and notice how sense desire is temporarily assuaged. So yes although I've not had jhana as such, I can vouch that even in the process of it's cultivation, there can be these occasional moments where one notices, after rising from the sitting "wow, right now I actually don't desire ..."<--(insert chosen word here) ;)

One last thing: I might not be able to discover a meaning to life, but I can live a meaningful life. "Meaning' is a fabrication anyway. It is what we make it. So "pointless" is also just an idea in the mind. It comes and goes. It's not permanent. But the fact that we can actually observe this arising and passing away, and gain some insight: that is wonderful, and there is a point to that, yes?

metta
manas :anjali:
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
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