Page 29 - Dhamma Practice

the feeling of “self”, suffering is gone. This shows that this is the way to extinguish suffering. The way is not to extinguish the things that upset us. Rather, we must extinguish suffering first, then, we can extinguish the things that upset us later. Whenever a conscious phenomenon emerges and causes our mind to suffer, the first thing that we must do is to extinguish that suffering. Once suffering is extinguished, our mind is unburdened, our mind is more peaceful. Wisdom has emerged.
When we are suffering, if we try to contemplate, we will find that our mind is too mixed up with that conscious phenomenon. And, we will not be able to find a way out. Why? This is because we are overwhelmed by suffering. If we are hit by an arrow, should we find the archer first? If we try to find the archer first, even the slightest shift of the arrow would be very painful. Instead, we should remove the arrow first, and tend to the wound until it is healed. Then, it is still not too late to find the archer.
Therefore, the extinguishment of suffering is important. When a conscious phenomenon hits, we must first extinguish the suffering. How do we do it? The easiest way is to “remove”. Remove what? Remove the feeling of “self” from our body. Then, the suffering will ease or cease completely. In reality, are our sufferings always caused by immediate problems? No. Sometimes, sufferings are caused by our recollections of
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