Foundations of the Spiritual Path: The Third Noble Truth
September 7, 2026 | 7 CommentsAudio only version is here
Meditation begins at 16:11
Hello Wonderful Open Heart Project,
We’ve been talking about the Four Noble Truths the past couple of weeks. You can go back to the First Noble Truth (life is suffering) and the Second Noble Truth (grasping is the cause of suffering), but only if you want to.
This week, we continue with the Third Noble Truth: the cessation of suffering.
I don’t know any secrets to happiness, but I have found a few secrets to unhappiness. Looking closely at what creates our suffering shows that sometimes the way forward is not to solve or eliminate discomfort, but to make space for it.
I also share a story about waking up in the middle of the night in terror and what that experience taught me.
Let me know what you think.
Love,
Susan
PS: Remember that you are warmly invited to join the Open Heart Project sangha, our membership community. The conversations go deeper and we have more time together. Please check it out, it would be great to see you there.
categorized in: dharma, meditation
7 Comments
Thank you so much.
❤️🙏 Thank you.
Just two nights ago I was thrashing around in bed with physical issue (the usual) and I said, Oh! your uncomfortable and getting anxious. the discomfort eased; I assume because my attention was moved to noticing. I still got up and waked around, but it felt like a small success.
Thank You, teacher,
Eileen
I may have missed something, but I think you left out the third aspect of suffering. There’s bewilderment, fixation, and then . . . I didn’t catch it. I assume the fixation breaks up and moves on to a new form of bewilderment.
The enneagram book preface keeps playing on my phone as an advertisement for Audio books. I am dyslexic so numbers escaped me somewhat early on. I looked at dust in the light and patterns on my childhood wall, not numbers exactly- but unconscious recognition of geometry, perhaps. 🙏
Hi, Susan I appreciate so much your talks on the 4 Noble Truths. As David Guy commented previously, your talk states there are 3 qualities of suffering: 1) bewilderment, 2) fixation, 3) ??? Is there “all pervasive” not knowing how reality works as one of them. You mention that in last part of bewilderment.
thank you for clarification.
Thank you for sharing the “night terror”
almost exact same experience for me – but more often it sounds like
it helps to know I am not full out mad