Florida Community of Mindfulness

During this Sunday at the Florida Community of Mindfulness, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner answers questions from students.

Teacher, Fred Eppsteiner, recounts the story of Siddhartha's remarkable birth and extraordinary transformation in choosing the path of renunciation to become the Buddha, taking life in a human body, from living the life of a royal protected from sickness, old age and death. When he encountered the suffering and impermanence experienced by a renunciate who remained peaceful, there was a crisis in his life precipitating the beginning of his search for that same peace and the attainment of Enlightenment. Fifty years of teaching followed as he became the Great Enlightened One teaching the Oneness of Everyone and Everything: "Above the heavens and below the heavens, I alone am the only One." The lineage of unbroken transmission of those teachings continues through 2600 years to the present.

This Mother's Day talk begins with a consideration of the question, " What do I need right now for my mind to be at peace?" Teacher, Fred Eppsteiner, encourages us to ground ourselves in the present and give up needlessly ruminating on our issues, dramas - the sources of suffering - recognizing the admonition of Thich Nhat Hahn that "at this moment we have all the conditions we need to be peaceful." From this peaceful place it is possible to step out of the Drama of Self and step into the Bodhisattva Way of the "Loving Altruistic Heart," which mimics the Heart of a Mother filled with love, compassion, wisdom, and generosity.

"The Art of Suffering," is a teaching of Thich Nhat Hahn and introduced here by Fred Eppsteiner. The source of suffering is identified and a model is provided for transforming suffering. Clearly, our pattern of endlessly focusing on the drama of the unsatisfactoriness of life not giving us what we want is a source of suffering as is the futility in the world of I, ME, Mine of holding on to transient pleasures which slip away.

Directed to the model for transformation -" the Art of Suffering"- we begin with the necessity to open and acknowledge the cause of suffering is within. Noting the 1st Arrow of life's pain with mindful awareness is the First Step in the transformative process, while the capacity to be present with suffering without the emotionality and reactivity of the 2nd Arrow is Step 2.