Clinging Is the True Suffering

📖Master’s Reading

A matter itself need not cause pain; what truly torments us is often the mind unwilling to let go. In truth, the cause of suffering is "clinging." We often sink deep into gain and loss, unable to pull free, like gripping something and refusing to release it: in the end the thing is crushed and the hand aches, both harmed. Sometimes not to touch it and to let go at the right time is the best way to leave pain.

When we concentrate our energy on suffering, suffering is magnified without limit. Know this: focus on the pain and you hurt more; focus on poverty and you grow poorer; focus on hatred and you hate more. So the Diamond Sūtra teaches us "dwell nowhere" — do not fix the mind on the point of suffering. If our mind always attaches to too many outer people and things, then losing any one of them makes us weep bitterly.

True practice was never to destroy suffering but to learn to loosen that tight grip. When you see through that all worldly things arise and cease by conditions and are willing to transform the mind and set down the clinging within, you find the afflictions that once felt unbearable suddenly lose their weight. Once the mind is willing to loosen, suffering naturally lightens, and the soul regains true freedom.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• Loosen your hands, and the mind is free.
• Understand that the cause of suffering is all clinging.
• Focus on pain and you hurt more; let the mind dwell nowhere.
• See through arising and ceasing, transform the mind and set down clinging.
• Learn to loosen your hands, and the soul regains freedom.