Dissatisfaction, a better explanation of suffering.

The Buddha is not a God. He is a great teacher. In the Buddhism people show great respect to their teacher and honour him. Buddha is just a ‘normal’ man. A human being like me and you. A man who left home, even his wife and young son, to homelessness. He freed himself to serve the world around by his teachings and way of life that have most to do with how to deal with suffering.

Buddhism is not about being special. It is about being ordinary. The Buddha gave us a lot of guidelines and actually not real rules to help us to stop or at least diminish our suffering. When you follow the guidelines there will be no suffering for you. But the teaching of the Buddha is a ‘free’ teaching. His lesson is most of all; “Find out yourself”.

The meaning of the big ears from the Buddha has to do with; ‘Do not believe me, find out yourself but to do that, be aware.’

Actually we use the word suffering in relation to Buddhism a lot. But it is not really the right understanding and translation out of the Sanskrit. In most of the situations it is much better to use the word; ‘Dissatisfaction’. Especially in the western world easier to understand.

We are never quite happy and if we are, most of the time it is very temporary. The food of our dissatisfaction are our burning desires and greed. And for sure it is not bad to have desires. Actually it is very normal and healthy to have them till a certain level.

Things change when they start to harm and toxify us and – by this – start to harm and toxify the world around us. The Buddhism learns us to be smart and fully aware about our desires. So, to be alert.

Let them serve you. Not on the outside, the world of getting more and more and never enough, but on the inside to purify, show compassion and build up inner wisdom even more. To enjoy and be available in and for the world around us even more. A sustainable way to lasting higher happiness.

Frans Captijn
Host / Catalyst / Talenteer at Captijn Insight

Captijn Insight: “Catalyst in your process to new sustainable flow. Whether you are an individual, couple, team or an organization.” 

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