Cause of distress

Your concept in the mind that things should be a certain way causes pain in the mind. The cause of distress is set concepts in the mind.

~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

All things are impermanent -- The story of Kisa Gotami

Kisa Gotami was an indigent woman who lived during the Buddha's lifetime. Though ridiculed and abused by her family for her helpless condition, Gotami finally gave birth to a son who brought her great joy, purpose, and respect from her husband's family. However, her joy suddenly came to an end when her child died. Deranged with grief, Gotami carried her dead son from house to house, begging all she met for a cure to restore his life.

A wise onlooker, moved by Gotami's suffering, interceded. "Gotami," he said, "only the Tathagata has the antidote to death. Go to him!" In desperation Gotami presented herself before the Buddha.

Buddha saw that she was on the verge of a spiritual awakening. "To restore your son's life," he counselled her, "find a house where no one has ever died. And from that house procure tiny grains of mustard seeds." Heartened by Buddha's words, Gotami ventured into the city, travelling from door to door in the hopes of finding one house bereft of death. But by the day's end, her search proved futile. There was not one household that had escaped the hands of death. This fact struck her deeply: "All things are impermanent." So saying, Gotami consigned her dead son to the cremation ground and humbly begged Lord Buddha to accept her as a disciple.

~ The story of Kisa Gotami as read from an article published in the April 2008 issue of The Vedanta Kesari

Conflict of opposites

Want creates duality in thought, and when one want creates suffering the mind seeks the opposite of that want. Whether it is a craving for comfort or the denial of comfort, it is the same, it is still want. So the mind maintains the conflict of opposites. When you begin to suffer, do not say, I must get rid of this or that want or cause, but silently observe, without denial or acceptance, and out of this choiceless awareness, want with its fears and illusions begins to yield place to intelligence. This intelligence is life itself and is not conditioned by the compulsion of want.

~ J. Krishnamurti, 28 July 1936.

Overcoming suffering

There is no one who does not suffer. He who suffers makes an effort to escape from actuality, and that escape only increases sorrow. But if through silent observation and patience, he discerns the true cause of suffering, that perception itself dissolves the very cause of suffering.

~ J. Krishnamurti, 16 June 1936.