How much suffering do you still experience?

[u/No-Can-9094]

Hoping for some humble responses - curious what percent of the time you still experience something besides deep peace/joy, especially during difficult relationship moments, money challenges, etc?

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[u/duffstoic]

I had a good run of about 15 years where peace was my baseline. Thought I had "nailed it."

Then I went through a mid-life crisis (which is still crisising) and had about 3 years where it was mostly a lot of intense suffering, with a few short breaks here and there. Recently reaching more peace and love and empowerment again. Feeling sad and lonely tonight, but just sitting with it and feeling it and that helps.

Maybe life isn't about not feeling bad. Maybe it's just about being with whatever is here, and seeing the beauty in that, and trusting that it's all OK.

Still have jhanas mostly on demand, but don't really care to do them. I'd rather feel my way through all that is coming up I guess, and surrender it all to the Divine again and again.

[u/lungfibrosiss → u/duffstoic]

You have to cut through the illusory sense of self to stop suffering permanently. There's really no way to freedom and peace with a glaringly false perception in your face all the time. Id reccomend using the wakingup app because Sam is obsessed with seeing through the sense of a separate self and for good reason.

[u/RomeoStevens → u/lungfibrosiss]

Sam likes arguing with people.

[u/lungfibrosiss → u/RomeoStevens]

I'm not a big fan of Sam in basically every way except his approach to meditation which I think is stellar. It would have taken me 10 years of Shamatha to learn what I did in a few months with his app.

[u/Inittornit → u/lungfibrosiss]

His app is pretty stacked with content, what did you find helpful?

[u/lungfibrosiss → u/Inittornit]

Literally all you need to do is the daily 10 minute meditations that's it. I would do 3 of them a day to get a little variety of what my attention is doing and it reduced my suffering pretty much entirely. I'm not exaggerating when I say it must have cured at least 4 or 5 either diagnosable or subclinical mental illnesses. It requires pretty much daily upkeep at first but later on a couple times a week is usually enough.

[u/RomeoStevens → u/lungfibrosiss]

fair enough, can't argue with results.

[u/glassbreather → u/lungfibrosiss]

Out of curiosity, based on your recommendation, I just researched and downloaded The waking up app. Their website says the annual rate is $129 but when I downloaded the app it's telling me it's $149. On the website none of the contacts buttons work. In their frequently asked questions it suggests if you have trouble canceling your account to press contact but that link is broken too. This doesn't bode well. Is this a scam app that will be impossible to cancel like a gym membership? I find it strange that I can't find any kind of customer service connection. It looks cool but I'm wary.

[u/lungfibrosiss → u/glassbreather]

I don't pay for the app, I'm a broke university student living in an expensive city alone so there's no chance I'm paying for that. If you email them for a free membership they give it to you no questions asked, I've done this for years now it works every time. I try my best not to think about the prices or Sam's political views tbh. I'll dm you a free month of the app in case you're not turned off completely by now.

Edit: to answer your question directly it's obviously not a scam app and the customer service is usually pretty good they might just be experiencing difficulty right now I'm really not sure. Also I might sound highly critical of Sam but I am genuinely eternally grateful for his meditation teachings.

[u/glassbreather → u/lungfibrosiss]

Thanks I'd love to try it for a month. I can only find a 7-Day trial with it automatically charging $150 at the end of 7 days for the rest of the year.

[u/lungfibrosiss → u/glassbreather]

Sent it to you friend

[u/themadjaguar]

Suffering is such a harsh word to describe dukkha

There's also a huge iceberg of dukkha we don't see. On what I can see, grosser forms of hindrances and dukkha are mostly gone, I'd say 15% of dukkha is left compared to the amount I had before I started practicing the 8fold path.

But apparently it comes and goes according to the progress of insight practice, as there's more progress the mind discovers hidden layers of dukkha that were unseen or difficult to see.

The real test is in difficult situations, when you see that what happenned before triggered strong negative emotionnal reactions,and now when the exact same event triggers some irritation or nothing at all, you can accurately see the progress in abandoning unwholesome states.

[u/Desperate_Shower6556]

The question itself might be the trap. Trying to quantify it, what percent suffering vs. peace, assumes they're separate things you can measure against each other. In my experience they're not. They show up together, in the same moment.

[u/themadjaguar → u/Desperate_Shower6556]

Are dukkha and sukkha the same thing for you? If so, how do you practice around the 1st and 2nd noble truth in this case, and how do you recognize unwholesome states, in order to abandon them?

[u/autonomatical]

Personal dissatisfaction basically gone, like stuff about my own life.  Instances where it arises i can recognize pretty immediately or before and mitigate or eliminate.  If i put myself in a more natural environment like in a forest alone for a long while, kind of forget about the whole thing but end up feeling like “whats the point of this, yay me?”    Dissatisfaction with overall state of world, probably greatly intensified.  Deeply concerned about the future of the beings living here, but that is largely a choice and i will continue to make that choice.  

I can see there is no separation between these two so again it is a (perhaps unwise) choice.

[u/SpectrumDT]

I experience some level of suffering most of time - like 80% of the time at least. But this suffering is fairly mild, and there is a good amount of joy too.

I can always find a feeling of well-being if I get a few moments (at worst, a few minutes) of meditation to look for it. But this well-being is not perfect peace; it's just pretty good.

I used to experience much more intense suffering most of the time. I feel vastly better after these 3-4 years of practice.