 In this article, we will cover what the Eight Worldly Concerns are and how they relate to your pursuit of happiness and your freedom from worry, stress, and anxiety. We as sentient beings, every single one of us, have two basic desires in common that drive and motivate absolutely everything that we think, say, and do: the wish to be happy and the wish to be free from suffering.
Within Buddhism, it's taught that the greed that we feel for the things that we want, the aversion that we feel to the things that we don't want, and the confusion that we have about where stable forms of happiness are actually found are the fundamental obstacles to our attainment of true happiness, peace, and well-being. These three factors are so common to the human experience that they are referred to as The Three Poisons within Buddhism and everyone struggles with these three obstacles, and so as a result, humanity as a whole struggles to move forward. Our pursuit of happiness and our aversion to being unhappy leads us to pursue or avoid what are referred to as The Eight Worldly Concerns; eight concerns which are ever-present in our lives that seem to always be at the foundation of our motivation to do anything. These eight concerns come in four rhyming and easy to remember, yet opposing, pairs:
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 In this short article, we will cover what Renunciation is and what it isn't for lay-practitioners; how to cultivate it; and, why it's so important to attaining Awakening and Enlightenment. Buddhist Renunciation isn't about asceticism or giving up pleasures and the finer things of life; believe it or not, you can renounce and still have those things. Rather, genuine Renunciation is about rejecting our unskilful attachments to the things that make us unhappy.
Don't worry, this will all make sense shortly. So, what is and what isn't Buddhist Renunciation, more specifically? |
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Michael Turner is a pre-monastic ācariya, ariya-puggala, and a full-time Buddhist anagārika; and he is also a deeply accomplished streamentry mentor and applied-dharma teacher. He emphasises and teaches the practical application of the Buddha's teachings in our everyday lives to overcome our human problems that stand in the way of making measurable progress toward Buddhist enlightenment and he is particularly adept at explaining them in ways that can be easily understood and practiced by Western Buddhists. He has been meditating and cultivating the views and techniques that generate indestructible resilience, inner-strength, and direct experience for more than 25 years and has helped countless numbers of students and peers enhance their practice to make clear progress along the path toward Nibbāna.
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