When the Buddha was teaching, there was no question about how this teaching was only for people who don’t deserve to suffer. Simply the question that people are doing things that cause suffering, and everybody would be better off if we learned how to stop.

"When the Buddha was teaching, as in that passage we chanted just now on how to put an end to suffering, there was no question about how this teaching was only for people who don’t deserve to suffer. The path to the end of suffering is for everybody, for all kinds of suffering, “deserved” or not. The question never comes up in his teachings — simply the question that people are doing things that cause suffering, and everybody would be better off if we learned how to stop. It would be better for us, better for people around us."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Healthy Attitude Toward Happiness"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

We’re never going to get a perfect society, but you find that the wiser you are in your generosity, the more consistent you are in your virtue, then the better the world you create around you. And it can be done without force, without imposing your will on other people.

Buddhism is not saying that if you have anger you’re a bad person and it’s all your fault. Rather, it’s saying that the anger is the unskillful element in the equation of sensing that something should be done — and that’s what you want to deal with.

A lot of people are embarrassed to think about the fact that they may have committed some pretty bad karma in the past. But we’re all in that boat, simply that some people’s karma is showing now and other people’s is going to show later.