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Kindle Notes & Highlights
The Buddha said that the cause of suffering is desire, and the Twelve Steps try to heal people from desire gone mad: addiction.
We are powerless over the disease of alcoholism and the effects of alcohol, but we are not powerless over whether we pick up a drink or not. The Buddha was emphatic on the point that we are responsible moment to moment for our words and actions, not just victims of destiny or hidden forces; we have an element of free will.
"I don't have power over what desires I have, but I do have power over what actions I take."
"Watch the thought and its ways with care, and let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings.... As the shadow follows the body, as we think, so we become."
Meditation makes it possible to see your thoughts more clearly, and when you see your thoughts clearly, you can consciously decide how to respond to them.
In the First Noble Truth, the Buddha said that life has an inherently unsatisfying quality, which he called dukkha (usually translated as suffering), and his goal in his own search was to find a way to free himself from this suffering.
Once the Buddha recognized the inherent unsatisfactoriness in life, he wanted to understand where it came from. The Second Noble Truth was his answer: the ceaseless desire for pleasure and self-centered gratification.
What causes our suffering isn't a lack of material things or emotional experiences, but rather the craving, the desire itself, the energy that keeps driving us to engage in the chase.
The first of these is Suffering, or unsatisfactoriness, called dukkha in Buddhism.
The Second Characteristic of Existence is Impermanence, or anicca.
The Third Characteristic is called No-Self, or anatta.
Hindrances: Desire, Aversion, Sloth and Torpor, Restlessness and Worry, and Skeptical Doubt.
Desire. The Buddha said that desire is the cause of suffering.
When you expose your hidden secrets and shame to your sponsor, you learn that you aren't alone. Your failings are common. Your shame, unnecessary.
