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Healing Family Suffering with the Four Noble Truths and the Five Mindfulness Trainings
Suffering in the family often manifests as disharmony, anger, deadlock, and separation. To transform this situation, we need to practice the Four Noble Truths (The Four Wondrous Truths):
- The Truth of Suffering: Recognizing and calling by name the suffering that is truly present.
- The Origin of Suffering: Looking deeply into the causes and the ways in which the suffering has been created.
- The Cessation of Suffering: The absence of suffering and the capacity to restore happiness.
- The Path: The concrete path of practice to transform and escape suffering.
Everyone has good seeds such as love and happiness, and negative seeds such as anger and despair. Instead of covering up our loneliness with toxic entertainment products like violent movies or video games, we need to practice selective watering. This includes the commitment not to water the negative seeds in our loved ones and in ourselves, while actively recognizing and watering the positive seeds every day. Communication is restored through the practice of listening with the heart and using loving speech so as not to cause further brokenness or water the garbage in each other’s hearts.
The only path to protect happiness is to practice the Five Precepts (The Five Mindfulness Trainings):
- Protecting life.
- Protecting integrity, not stealing.
- Protecting family happiness, no sexual misconduct.
- Speaking and listening in mindfulness so as not to water bad seeds.
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Consuming in mindfulness to prevent toxins from entering the body and mind.
The mission of the Buddhist Youth Family is to successfully practice these within the organization, and from there, to intervene and help the blood families as well as the school environments of each member. When practicing walking meditation, we can call the name of our loved one as we breathe in, and promise to help them suffer less as we breathe out, as a way to nourish our Buddha nature.