The weight of mountains

Writing about web page http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/modern/thanissaro/mountains.html

Last night there was a discussion on 'suffering' by the Buddhist Society, this short quote from Thanissaro Bhikkhu sums it up nicely:

Is a mountain heavy? It may be heavy in and of itself, but as long as we don't try to lift it up, it won't be heavy for us. This is a metaphor that one of my teachers, Ajaan Suwat, often used when explaining how to stop suffering from the problems of life. You don't deny their existence — the mountains are heavy — and you don't run away from them. As he would further explain, you deal with problems where you have to and solve them where you can. You simply learn how not to carry them around. That's where the art of the practice lies: in living with real problems without making their reality burden the heart.

Next week the discussion will be on 'karma' — Thursday Week 4, 7pm in S0.09.