There are a lot of truths out there that are totally irrelevant to what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to find happiness, trying to figure out how we’re creating suffering.

"When the Buddha tells you to look inside for the causes of your suffering, it’s not a case of blaming the victim. He’s trying to remind you of what does lie in your power to change. There may be a lot of things outside that contribute to you suffering, but you can’t change them. Or you could change them if you spent a lot of time. But there’s no certainty as to how permanent that change would be.

So as meditators, we’re not here trying to settle old scores or to create justice in the world. We’re trying to figure out what we’re doing that’s contributing to our own suffering. After all, we go to all the effort of thinking and acting and speaking with the purpose of causing happiness, and yet the results don’t always come out that way. In fact, most of the time they come out the other way. We end up causing suffering for ourselves. That’s the big paradox in life.

Fortunately, the way we act and speak and think depending on our intentions is something we can change. We can learn from our mistakes. That’s what the first noble truth is all about. We make mistakes when our desires are frustrated, but we can learn from those frustrated desires if we look at them in the right way.

That’s where appropriate attention comes in. Appropriate attention is not simply looking at things as they are, because there are a lot of truths out there that are totally irrelevant to what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to find happiness, trying to figure out how we’re creating suffering. Appropriate attention helps us in our efforts by looking at things in terms of four noble truths. Where is there suffering in your experience right now? Where is there stress? Where is there a sense of being burdened? Look for that. Try to comprehend it. Figure out where the causes are, specifically the causes coming from the mind."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "In Your Power"

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