Suffering Comes and Goes: The Third Noble Truth

"The third noble truth of buddhism, Cessation of Suffering, is the rising and ceasing of the same craving that creates our suffering: the rejecting, relinquishing, leaving and renouncing of it." - Ajahn Sumedho

How many of us can say that we had a perfect childhood? Of course none, it wasn't perfect because life is not perfect because humans have a flawed, and narrow perspective of true perfection.

Although, when I did look back at the days of my youth looking for reasons why I wasn't perfect yet, I began realizing how my attachment to my narrow view was perpetuating my suffering.

Therefore, my understanding of the Third Noble Truth is "cease being perfect." Be open-minded to the idea that everything happens for a reason. Be willing to reject certainty. Be receptive to receiving a different perspective.

Stop looking for absolutes. Let the truth come to you. About you; about life; about what you think you know about your place in this universe.

And as you make time, to be receptive, to ponder, to reflect the great wonders of this world. Imagine yourself having the skill and ability to ride the wave of your suffering by allowing it to rise and fade and cease to be.

After 30 years on this earth, I am only now learning to appreciate the ebbs and flows of my life. In a greater sense, I am enjoying the seemingly low points of my life even more because I know that my wave will rise again.

And if it doesn't, I can accept it as being part of the great "what is". I am not attached to a particular outcome because I do not live in the future. The events of my life are unfolding at this very moment. Right here, right now.

And as the events of your life unfold, unfold with them as you begin to look more deeply into things, following the path to profound understanding. This understanding is based upon the rising and ceasing of temporal things. Once you get this, everything is part of the plan.

In other words, you are not your job or the leather jacket that you wear. And as you start recognizing the "things" in your life that are NOT you, you will begin to see things as they really are.

Letting things rise into our consciousness, then by laying them down, we can say, "I know cessation" by knowing that this particular some-thing has ceased.

Since I began doing guided exploration, I have experienced despair, depression, anger and hatred. At times, I felt under so much pressure that I wanted to explode. Memories, thoughts, beliefs, etc all started coming to the surface.

I felt powerless and powerful at the same time. I felt trapped and free. I felt lost and found. A great bundle of ironies. Then slowly, the emotions, the burning thoughts and the desires began to subside. This process is called the purification.

I open completely to my suffering, welcome it, concentrate on it, allow it to be what it is. That means we must be patient and bear with the unpleasantness of a particular condition. I have to endure boredom, despair, doubt and fear in order to understand that these things cease rather than running away from them.

When you let something go and allow it to cease, then what is left is peace.

In peace, we see things just as they are. When we are aware in this way, we begin to do the right things because they are the right things to do rather than out of a sense of personal ambition or fear of failure.

In this way, and through our understanding of cessation of suffering, our desire to be seen as an individual, no longer is important to us. We then abide in the great vastness where we all come together and merge.