**The Big Idea: Problems Live Inside, Not Outside** One of the most striking points made right at the beginning is that while modern technology and material progress have increased considerably, we haven't seen a corresponding increase in human happiness. In fact, the sources suggest there might even be _more_ problems and greater dangers now than ever before. This is a crucial insight because it immediately points us away from looking for solutions solely in external circumstances. The book argues that the real cause of happiness and the solution to our problems aren't found in material things. Why? Because happiness and suffering are states of mind, and their main causes are internal, not external. Think about it: when things go wrong, our usual reaction is to see the difficult situation itself as _the_ problem. But these teachings challenge that idea. They say that whatever problems we experience actually come from _the side of the mind_. If we could respond to those tricky situations with a positive or peaceful mind, they wouldn't even feel like problems. They might even become challenges or opportunities for growth! Problems only pop up if our response to difficulties is a negative state of mind. This is a game-changer, isn't it? It means that if we truly want to be free from problems, the key is to transform our mind. The nature of our problems, then, is described as our unpleasant feelings, which are very much a part of our mind. Using the example of a car problem, the source points out that while the car's issue is external, _our_ problem arises when we experience unpleasant feelings about it. The real nature of _our_ problems resides inside, within our feelings. **Delving Deeper: What Causes Our Inner Problems?** So, if problems come from the mind, what exactly in the mind causes them? The sources are quite clear on this: all our problems – these unpleasant feelings we experience – come from delusions. The main culprits are specifically named as the delusions of attachment and self-grasping ignorance. Attachment is a big one. We often have strong attachment to getting our wishes fulfilled, and we work incredibly hard for this, encountering many difficulties and problems along the way. When those wishes _aren't_ met, or when we lose things we're attached to like friends, jobs, status, or reputation, we feel unhappiness, depression, and often anger. Our strong attachment to these things is the basis for the suffering we feel at their loss. Even attachment to our own views can cause problems, leading to unpleasant feelings when someone disagrees, sparking anger, arguments, and conflicts. The sources even link many political and religious problems worldwide to people's strong attachment to their views. Beyond attachment, the sources highlight self-cherishing and self-grasping as deeply fundamental misconceptions. Self-cherishing is described as an exaggeration of our own importance. From self-cherishing and self-grasping, all our other delusions like anger and attachment arise, causing endless problems. Self-grasping, in particular, is called a wrong awareness that mistakenly believes we and everything else exist truly or inherently. In reality, things exist as 'mere imputations'. This 'foolish mind' of self-grasping grasps at 'I' and 'mine' and other phenomena as truly existent, which then gives rise to attachment for what we like and hatred for what we dislike. These lead to actions that harm others, resulting in suffering in this and future lives. Self-grasping is described as the "principal cause of all our problems" and likened to a "poisonous tree," with other delusions as its branches and sufferings as its fruits. This really makes you think, doesn't it? If the root of all our problems is an internal misconception about how we and the world exist and our exaggerated sense of self-importance, then no amount of rearranging the external world will truly fix things. **The Path to Freedom: Embracing Dharma** Given that our problems stem from delusions within the mind, the solution must also lie within. The sources present Buddha's teachings, called Dharma, as the "actual method to solve our human problems" and "supreme protection from suffering". Dharma is described as the only method to control our delusions of attachment, anger, and self-grasping ignorance. Putting these teachings into practice is absolutely essential. Just understanding them intellectually isn't enough; it's compared to a sick person reading medical instructions without taking the medicine. The Buddha's teachings are structured around fundamental truths. The sources introduce the "four noble truths" as Buddha's "most profound teachings" for finding "everlasting peace and happiness". These are called 'noble truths' because they are "superior and non-deceptive instructions". Let's break down these four powerful truths: 1. **You should know sufferings:** Everyone knows suffering in a general sense, but Buddha encourages knowing the sufferings of _future lives_. Why? Because understanding the endless nature of future suffering develops a strong wish to liberate ourselves from it. This perspective shifts our focus from just the short duration of this life's problems to the much vaster picture. It highlights the incredible opportunity provided by our present human life, which is precious precisely because it offers the freedom and conditions needed to engage in spiritual paths that lead to everlasting peace. Focusing only on the freedom and happiness of this one short life is seen as foolish, likened to the actions of animals concerned only with the present. 2. **You should abandon origins:** The 'origins' are primarily our delusions – attachment, anger, and self-grasping ignorance. We naturally wish to avoid suffering, but we often don't think about abandoning the delusions that cause it. However, controlling and abandoning these delusions is presented as the only way to achieve permanent liberation from suffering. This requires effort, concentration on Dharma's meaning, and strong determination. Remembering that delusions are the source of _all_ suffering should fuel our efforts to recognize, reduce, and abandon them completely. 3. **You should attain cessations:** This means achieving the _permanent_ stopping of suffering. While we might experience temporary relief from specific sufferings (like being physically healthy), this isn't enough because suffering will return in this life and future lives. Every being is caught in an endless cycle of suffering (sickness, ageing, death, rebirth). The goal is to develop strong renunciation for this cycle and strive for the "permanent cessation of suffering," also known as 'nirvana' or 'liberation'. Temporary fixes for problems like poverty or disease are valuable but won't bring this permanent freedom. 4. **You should practise the path:** This 'path' isn't an external road but an inner, spiritual journey towards liberation and enlightenment. The path is condensed into three essential 'higher trainings': higher moral discipline, higher concentration, and higher wisdom. They're called 'higher' because they're motivated by renunciation, the sincere wish for permanent freedom. - **Higher Moral Discipline:** This involves abandoning inappropriate actions, maintaining pure behaviour, and acting with virtuous motivation. It's crucial for preventing future problems and makes our actions pure. It's seen as the foundation supporting spiritual progress. - **Higher Concentration:** This means preventing distractions and focusing on virtuous objects. Without concentration, accomplishing anything is difficult. Training in higher concentration involves familiarizing the mind with stopping distractions and concentrating on virtuous objects, motivated by renunciation. It's noted that moral discipline helps with gross distractions, while concentration helps with subtle ones, leading to quicker progress. - **Higher Wisdom:** This is a virtuous intelligent mind that dispels confusion and deeply understands profound objects. It's distinguished from worldly intelligence (which even animals have) as it doesn't deceive and acts as an "inner Spiritual Guide". Training in higher wisdom involves meditating on wisdom realizing emptiness, motivated by renunciation. Emptiness is described as "extremely profound," the "real nature of all phenomena," not nothingness. These three higher trainings are described as the "actual method" to attain the permanent cessation of suffering. Using an analogy, moral discipline is like the body, concentration like the hands, and wisdom like the saw – together they can cut the "poisonous tree of our self-grasping ignorance," leading to the cessation of all delusions and sufferings (the branches and fruits) and attaining nirvana. It's also mentioned that the four noble truths can be applied to specific issues, such as understanding the suffering of anger, its origin (anger itself), its cessation, and the path (patience). This leads us into a more detailed look at how to handle one of the most troublesome delusions: anger. **Conquering the Real Enemy: The Practice of Patience** Part Two of the excerpts dives deep into the problem of anger and the power of patience, drawing heavily on the teachings of the great Buddhist Master Shantideva. Anger is called "one of the most common and destructive delusions". The sources quote Shantideva saying there is "no evil greater than anger, And no virtue greater than patience". To tackle anger, we first need to recognize it within ourselves, acknowledge how it harms us and others, and appreciate the benefits of patience. Anger is defined as a deluded mind that focuses on something, finds it unattractive, _exaggerates_ its bad qualities, and wishes to harm it. It's based on exaggeration and is described as an "unrealistic mind" and "extremely destructive". The sources list many faults of anger. One key point is that anger can destroy vast amounts of 'merit' (good fortune) accumulated through virtuous actions. Getting angry at a holy being or someone who has been very kind is particularly destructive. Even slight anger can delay positive results. This destruction of merit is presented as an 'invisible fault' that might require faith to accept. But there are also many 'visible faults'. Anger is inherently a painful state of mind. It immediately destroys inner peace, causes physical tension, restlessness, poor sleep, and makes even enjoyable things unpalatable. It can distort a person's appearance. In relationships, anger is incredibly damaging; love cannot survive where anger is prevalent. It's crucial to deal with anger as soon as it arises, like clearing dishes after a meal, before it accumulates and becomes harder to handle. Importantly, the source distinguishes between controlling anger and repressing it. Repression is when full-blown anger is ignored or outwardly suppressed while still seething internally, making it dangerous. Controlling anger means honestly acknowledging its presence, realizing it causes suffering, and making a conscious decision to respond constructively. This prevents anger from developing and leads to happiness in this and future lives. The sources emphasize that blaming others for our difficulties is a sign of problems within our own mind. If our mind were truly peaceful, external difficulties or people wouldn't disturb it. Someone who has subdued their mind and eradicated anger sees all beings as friends and has no enemies. The ultimate solution is to uproot our own anger. This goal is presented as achievable through appropriate methods, just like curing physical illness. Imagine the world if everyone conquered anger – war would cease, conflicts would end. Even individually, freeing the mind from anger brings immense freedom and peace. Why do we get angry? It's a response to unhappiness, which arises from unpleasant circumstances. Specifically, when our wishes are frustrated or we're forced into unwanted situations. Since we can't always fulfill desires or stop bad things from happening (especially in samsara, where we're not in control), we need a different approach: patient acceptance. Patience is described not as passively enduring, but as a mind that "is able to accept, fully and happily, whatever occurs". It means "to welcome wholeheartedly whatever arises, having given up the idea that things should be other than what they are". It's presented as _always_ possible. Patient acceptance is a "very strong, active stance" against delusions, unlike reacting with anger which is being "defeated by our delusions". Often, emotional problems are just a failure to accept things as they are. True patience involves letting go of judgment, resentment, and the thought that others (or situations) _should_ be different. Accepting others without judgment dissolves problems in relationships. Patient acceptance benefits both ourselves and others. The sources outline three specific types of patience to practice: 1. **The patience of voluntarily accepting suffering:** Accepting unavoidable suffering, hardship, or disappointment. This helps us see the nature of samsara (suffering is infinite, joy limited) and understand that suffering is the result of our own past actions. Accepting unavoidable suffering prevents unhappy thoughts. It helps maintain a peaceful mind even when the body is in pain and may even help the body heal. Responding with non-acceptance and anger makes things worse, destroying merit and sowing seeds for future suffering. Accepting suffering patiently leads to mental stability, helps recognize being trapped in samsara, and fosters renunciation, the basis for higher spiritual realizations. It provides the clarity to see the mental habits binding us to suffering. Patiently accepting painful feelings purifies the negative karma that triggered them. These feelings are linked to self-grasping; stepping back helps undermine it. The sources encourage perseverance by comparing the effort to endure suffering in spiritual practice to the efforts people make for worldly goals (sports, fame, money). Familiarity increases the strength of our patience. Recognizing delusions as the real enemies makes the suffering in spiritual practice bearable. Enduring suffering and overcoming delusions makes one a true hero. Suffering can even have good qualities for practitioners, leading to insights, dispelling arrogance, fostering renunciation, and developing compassion for others. 2. **The patience of definitely thinking about Dharma:** Practicing Dharma with a patient and joyful mind. Using understanding of profound Dharma, like emptiness and dependent relationship, to deepen patience. The wisdom realizing emptiness is the direct way to cut delusions. Suffering can provide opportunities to identify self-grasping and deepen understanding of emptiness. The sources use the example of getting angry at a person who hits us but not at a disease, arguing that both act under conditions (delusions, causes) and lack independent existence. Analyzing how everything (aggressor, victim, anger, suffering) arises dependently and lacks inherent existence dissolves the basis for anger and blame. This understanding, even though things are like illusions, doesn't negate cause and effect; negative actions still bring suffering results. Realizing that others harm us because they are controlled by delusions, not freely choosing to do so, leads to compassion instead of anger. 3. **The patience of not retaliating:** Overcoming the desire to retaliate by combining patient acceptance with compassion. See the person harming you as deluded and also harming themselves. Anger is everyone's principal enemy, harming self and others. Examining if the harm is due to the person's essential nature or a temporary fault reveals that anger is inappropriate in either case. Direct wrath at the _delusion_ of anger, not the person, which becomes a forceful form of compassion aimed at freeing them from their inner enemy. This practice is about managing our _internal_ reaction, not necessarily passively allowing harm if it can be prevented without anger. Another powerful method is seeing undesirable situations as the result of our own past actions (karma). Understanding karma allows us to accept harm calmly, viewing it as repayment of a debt, which purifies that karma. Our contaminated body, prone to suffering, is also a result of past deluded actions and karma. All suffering, even when caused by others, is ultimately the result of our own delusions and negative actions. Blaming others is inappropriate; blaming our own delusions and negative actions is accurate, but we shouldn't blame _ourselves_ as the victim of delusions. Accepting harm patiently purifies karma and creates the virtue of patience; the attacker becomes a benefactor. Shantideva's teachings address common objections to non-retaliation, clarifying that practicing patience prevents suffering results, the attacker receives negative results from their action, retaliation harms one's own spiritual practice, and non-retaliation is beneficial for reputation, wealth, and ultimately enlightenment. Worldly gains obtained through anger are meaningless at death. Worrying about others' dislike or bad reputation is based on mistaken conceptions. Even when loved ones or the Three Jewels are harmed, the response should be compassion, preventing harm if possible, but guarding one's own mind from anger. Anger towards animate objects while tolerating inanimate harm is illogical. Recognizing that aggressor and victim are caught in the same karmic scenario dissolves malice. Accepting inevitable separation from loved ones in samsara, giving up attachment but not love, is also part of patience. Accepting minor suffering prepares us for greater suffering and allows us to transform it into spiritual progress. Overcoming jealousy of others' happiness and praise is important; attachment to reputation is a distraction from Dharma. Allowing praise and criticism to dictate our happiness is childish. Defending reputation without anger is acceptable if it serves a greater purpose. The person who harms us is our greatest teacher, helping us cut attachment to worldly attainments and strengthening our desire for liberation. Patience is an essential inner training, potentially more valuable than outer virtuous activities. An enemy, by providing the opportunity to practice patience, is worthy of respect and veneration, like sacred Dharma. **Respecting Sentient Beings and the Kindness of the Buddha** Flowing from the practice of patience, especially non-retaliation, is the idea of seeing sentient beings (all living beings) in a profound way. They are described as a "field for cultivating the crops of virtue," similar to enlightened beings (the Buddhas). While Buddhas and ordinary beings have vastly different qualities, they are both causes of our enlightenment and thus "equally worthy of our respect". Giving to sentient beings is seen as an offering because they allow us to accumulate merit. The sources emphasize that because Buddhas like Shakyamuni cherish all sentient beings with boundless love and compassion, stronger than a mother's love, all beings are precious and worthy of our highest respect. Harming sentient beings is likened to harming a mother by striking her children, deeply displeasing the Buddhas. The perfect way to repay the kindness of the Buddhas is to generate love and compassion for all beings ourselves. Serving sentient beings should be seen as a privilege. Practicing patience towards those who harm us and respecting all beings pleases the Buddhas and leads towards enlightenment. **Understanding the Mind: The Foundation for Change** All these practices ultimately depend on understanding the mind itself. The source stresses that the mind is not the brain or any part of the body; it's a "formless continuum that functions to perceive and understand objects". The analogy of the body as a guesthouse and the mind as a guest is used, with the mind leaving the body at death. The mind operates on gross, subtle, and very subtle levels. Gross minds include sense awarenesses and strong delusions like anger and attachment. Subtle minds manifest during sleep, and the "very subtle mind," the mind of clear light, manifests during deep sleep and at the end of the death process. This very subtle mind's continuum has no beginning or end, goes from life to life, and when purified, transforms into a Buddha's omniscient mind. Crucially, states of mind that disturb inner peace are called 'delusions,' and they are the "principal causes of all our suffering". The essence of Dharma practice is reducing and eradicating delusions and replacing them with peaceful, virtuous states. The futility of seeking happiness externally is reiterated; it's described as elusive, while suffering comes naturally. This is because the internal causes of suffering (delusions) are strong, while the causes of happiness (virtue) are weak and require effort. Maintaining a calm and peaceful mind prevents problems and suffering regardless of external circumstances. Learning to do this through Dharma practice is the only way to be free from problems. **Past and Future Lives: The Mind's Continuum** Understanding the mind also allows us to understand the existence of past and future lives. The idea that the mind ceases at death like a candle flame is incorrect. The mind's continuum remains unbroken, simply leaving the current body for the next. For ordinary beings, death doesn't end suffering but brings new suffering. The process of sleep, dream, and waking is presented as an analogy for death, the intermediate state, and rebirth. Just as we transition through levels of mind in sleep and dream before waking to a new perception of the world, the mind goes through subtle stages at death, experiences an intermediate state (bardo), and then takes rebirth into a new perception of the world. The sources include anecdotal accounts, including a divination and details suggesting a child was a reincarnation, and historical accounts of transference of consciousness practices. **Meditation and the Kadampa Way** Meditation is presented as a core practice for mental development. It's defined as "a mind that concentrates on a virtuous object" and the "main cause of mental peace". By meditating, we create the mental karma for future inner peace. The purpose is to make the mind calm and peaceful, leading to true happiness independent of external conditions. Meditation helps control the mind, which is usually tossed about by external circumstances and delusions. Systematic training can eventually eradicate the delusions that cause problems and suffering, leading to permanent inner peace. Even preliminary practices like breathing meditation can bring calm, contentment, reduce stress, and improve relationships. The book also touches upon the Kadampa way of life, emphasizing practices like relying on a Spiritual Teacher, listening to instructions, earnest practice, avoiding distractions, cultivating contentment, avoiding negative minds, limiting worldly activities, dedicating virtues, self-reflection, giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration, and investigating meaning. The "Three Principal Aspects of the Path" – renunciation, bodhichitta (the wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all), and wisdom realizing emptiness/dependent relationship – are highlighted as essential for cutting the root of samsara and attaining enlightenment. Prayers are also included as part of the practice. **Bringing It All Together** In essence, "How to Solve Our Human Problems" provides a framework for understanding that our difficulties stem from within our minds, specifically from delusions like attachment, anger, and self-grasping ignorance. The solution lies in transforming our minds through the practice of Dharma, particularly by applying the teachings of the four noble truths. A key practice detailed is patience, which helps us overcome anger by accepting suffering, understanding Dharma, and refraining from retaliation. This involves seeing the kindness of those who harm us, understanding karma, and cultivating compassion and respect for all sentient beings. The foundation for all this change is understanding the nature of the mind and its continuum beyond this life. Through diligent practice, especially meditation, we can cultivate inner peace, eradicate delusions, and ultimately achieve the permanent happiness of liberation and enlightenment, thereby solving our human problems and finding the real meaning of life. **Ideas for Further Exploration:** - How can we practically apply the idea that problems are states of mind in our daily lives? What specific techniques, beyond those mentioned, might help us change our mental response to difficult situations? - The sources mention different levels of mind (gross, subtle, very subtle) and the continuum of mind beyond death. What are the implications of this view for concepts like consciousness, identity, and the purpose of life? - The importance of the Spiritual Guide is mentioned multiple times. What is the specific role of a Spiritual Guide in this path, and how does one find and rely upon such a guide? - Emptiness is described as the "real nature of all phenomena" and the key to cutting self-grasping. How can someone begin to understand and meditate on emptiness, especially given that it's described as profoundly subtle? - The destruction of merit by anger is mentioned as an "invisible fault" that might require faith. How does the concept of merit and its destruction fit into the overall framework of cause and effect (karma) presented in the sources? - The sources suggest cultivating compassion for those who harm us, viewing them as deluded and unfortunate. What meditations or practices can help foster genuine compassion, especially towards adversaries? - The three higher trainings are presented as the path to liberation. How do these trainings build upon each other, and how might a beginner approach integrating them into their life?