The Method for the Cessation of Suffering

The meditation on the skeleton and the meditation on impurity can extinguish suffering. If one contemplates the thirty-six impure substances within one's own body, wherever the contemplation is directed, that place will relax. This is because attachment to the contemplated object diminishes; when the mind does not grasp, relaxation occurs. Therefore, bodily issues ultimately stem from the mind. When the mind is handled well and becomes empty, many problems are resolved. If a Buddhist practitioner lives daily life with acceptance, without deliberate pursuit, without being picky or grasping, life will be relaxed and carefree. Whatever happens is acceptable; it doesn't matter. With everything accepted according to conditions and the mind single-pointedly focused on the path, what suffering is there to speak of? Why is it that those who have attained the Way experience no suffering in their minds, regardless of their life circumstances? It is precisely because they know the world of the five aggregates to be empty; they do not grasp, use things according to conditions, use them if they have them, and are unperturbed if they lack them.

The suffering felt by our body and mind all arises because the mental faculty of intellect grasps and clings. If there is no grasping, there is no suffering. The knots and bonds in the mind are all produced by grasping. Knots and bonds are like ropes; where there are knots and bonds, there is obstruction and stagnation. Without grasping, the mind's state is open, spacious, and penetrating; one can ascend to heaven or descend to earth, following one's own will. When experiencing suffering, one should reflect: what did I grasp and cling to that led to this suffering? All suffering has a cause. Only by identifying the cause and resolving it can one find a way to extinguish the fruit of suffering.