Episode 20 - How to Solve Your Problems

In this episode we try to discover whether or not this is true: Our problems are inside our mind. Our problems are not outside of our mind. If problems are inside our mind, we can change our mind and problems can disappear. If problems are outside the mind (a.k.a. our colleagues, partner, children, neighbor, the weather, even our health) we have no control over these external things and no ability to solve them. We give our power away by blaming others. Blaming others for our unhappiness is a path toward unhappiness. In meditation, we try to point our compass toward peace. In daily life, if we can prioritize our own inner peace over all things, accept responsibility for our own happiness, we can create a truly happy life.

"Do not consider the faults of others,

Or what they have or haven't done.

Consider rather

What you yourself have or haven't done.

Like a beautiful flower,

Brightly colored but lacking scent,

So are well-spoken words,

Fruitless when not carried out.

Like a beautiful flower,

Brightly colored and with scent,

So are well-spoken words,

Fruitful when carried out.

Just as from a heap of flowers,

Many garlands can be made,

So, you, with your mortal life,

Should do many skillful things."

--Buddha, The Dhammapada, verses 50-53

References:

The Dhammapada, by Buddha. Translated by Gil Fronsdale. Shambala, Boston and London, 2011, pp. 13

Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, by Je Tsongkhapa, Volume 1. Pages 297-301. Translated by the Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee. Joshua Cutler, Editor-in-Chief, and Guy Newlan, Editor.