Cessation of Suffering

Online programs were offered July 29-31, 2025

Embodiment Exploration – July 2025

(Thursday, July 31st, 9 am Pacific Time)

We have seen and felt suffering – our own and others.  Many have also had glimpses of not being caught in suffering, sensing some spaciousness, some freedom.  We can bring curiosity to the qualities of that freedom from suffering.  We playfully explore letting go, releasing, and non-craving.

Reflection and Meditation – PV*

(Thursday, July 31st, 7 pm Pacific Time) 

• Topic: Tasting Cessation of Suffering

* PV denotes that this is a regular Passaddhi Vihara program that continues all year on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Somatic exploration of cessation of suffering

Reflection on cessation of suffering followed by silent meditation

Embodiment Exploration 

This week’s topic: Cessation of Suffering

We have seen and felt suffering – our own and others.  Many have also had glimpses of not being caught in suffering, sensing some spaciousness, some freedom.  We can bring curiosity to the qualities of that freedom from suffering.  We playfully explore letting go, releasing, and non-craving.

This week we play with:

 Comment:   Body scans can get us familiar with the current states of tension and softness in the body and often mirror the mind.  There are some motions of the body and particularly the arms that can aid us in sensing the shifts of fading away, letting go and freedom. This is a type of play to be repeated again and again so that more resilient and easeful habits form. In this way, suffering can be let go.

Suttas

And what is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering?

Katamañca, bhikkhave, dukkhanirodhaṁ ariyasaccaṁ?

It’s the fading away and cessation of that very same craving with nothing left over, giving it away, letting it go, releasing it, and not clinging to it.  

Yo tassāyeva taṇhāya asesavirāganirodho cāgo paṭinissaggo mutti anālayo.

SN 22.22 – The Burden

Summary

The aggregates are the burden, a person carries that burden, craving takes up the burden, and letting go puts down the burden.

Text

At Savatthi…. There the Blessed One said this:

“I will teach you the burden, the carrier of the burden, the taking up of the burden, and the laying down of the burden. Listen to that….

“bhārañca vo, bhikkhave, desessāmi bhārahārañca bhārādānañca bhāranikkhepanañca.

bhāra 1 masc. burden; load; weight ►

bhāra 2 masc. duty; task; responsibility; difficult matter; lit. burden ►

bhāra 3 adj. difficult; burdensome ►

–hāra 1 adj. carrying; bearing; holding ►

–hāra 2 nt. which can be carried; lit. carrying ►

āda adj. taking; receiving; accepting ►

–ādāna 1 nt. taking; taking up; grasping; holding ►

–nikkhepana 1 nt. discarding; dropping; throwing down; casting off ►

–nikkhepana 2 nt. eliminating; excreting; lit. throwing down ►

“And what  is the burden? 

It should be said: the five aggregates subject to clinging. 

What five? 

The form aggregate subject to clinging, the feeling aggregate subject to clinging, the perception aggregate subject to clinging, the volitional formations aggregate subject to clinging, the consciousness aggregate subject to clinging. This is called the burden.

“And what is the carrier of the burden? 

It should be said: the person, this venerable one of such a name and clan. This is called the carrier of the burden.

“And what is the taking up of the burden? 

It is this craving that leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination. This is called the taking up of the burden.

“And what is the laying down of the burden? 

It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on it. This is called the laying down of the burden.”

This is what the Blessed One said. Having said this, the Fortunate One, the Teacher, further said this:

“The five aggregates are truly burdens,
The burden-carrier is the person.
Taking up the burden is suffering in the world,
Laying the burden down is blissful.

Having laid the heavy burden down
Without taking up another burden,
Having drawn out craving with its root,
One is free from hunger, fully quenched.”  

 – Bhikkhu Bodhi w/ slight adjustments by Ayya Niyyanika

SN 22.103 – The Sides

Summary

The aggregates considered in light of the four noble truths, phrased as “portions” or “sides”.

Text

At Sāvatthī.

There are these four sides.

What four?

The side of substantial reality, 

the side of the origin of substantial reality, 

the side of the cessation of substantial reality, and 

the side of the practice that leads to the cessation of substantial reality.

Sakkāyanto, sakkāyasamudayanto, sakkāyanirodhanto, sakkāyanirodhagāminippaṭipadanto.

sakkāya masc. personal existence; individual identity; mind-body complex; embodiment; embodied being; (view that) one is the owner of the body and mind; lit. existing body ►

anta 2 masc. end; side; extreme ►

sakkāyanta masc. side of personal identity ►

And what is the side of substantial reality?

It should be said: the five grasping aggregates.

What five?

That is, the grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness.

This is called the side of substantial reality.

And what is the side of the origin of substantial reality?

It’s the craving that leads to future lives, mixed up with relishing and greed, taking pleasure wherever it lands. That is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving to continue existence, and craving to end existence.

This is called the side of the origin of substantial reality.

And what is the side of the cessation of substantial reality?

It’s the fading away and cessation of that very same craving with nothing left over; giving it away, letting it go, releasing it, and not clinging to it.

Yo tassāyeva taṇhāya asesavirāganirodho cāgo paṭinissaggo mutti anālayo—

This is called the side of the cessation of substantial reality.

And what is the side of the practice that leads to the cessation of substantial reality?

It is simply this noble eightfold path, that is:

right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion.

This is called the side of the practice that leads to the cessation of substantial reality.

These are the four sides.”

Yo tassāyeva taṇhāya asesavirāganirodho cāgo paṭinissaggo mutti anālayo.

Virāga [vi+rāga] absence of rāga, dispassionateness, indifference towards (abl. or loc.) disgust, absence of desire, destruction of passions; waning, fading away cleansing, purifying; emancipation, Arahantship.

Nirodha [BSk. nirodha, to nirundhati, cp. nirujjhati & niruddha] oppression, suppression; destruction, cessation annihilation (of senses, consciousness, feeling being in general: sankhārā).

Cāga [from cajati, to give up, Vedic tyaj. Cp. Sk. tyāga] (a) abandoning, giving up, renunciation

Paṭinissagga [paṭi+nissagga of nissajjati, nis+sṛj, Cp. BSk. pratinisarga AvŚ ii.118, pratiniḥsarga ib. ii.194 MVastu ii.549; pratinissagga MVastu iii.314, 322 giving up, forsaking; rejection, renunciation

Nissajjati [nis+sajjati, sṛj. See also nisajjeti] to let loose, give up, hand over, give, pour out

Mutti (f.) [fr. muc, cp. Sk. mukti] release, freedom, emancipation

Anālaya [an + ālaya] aversion, doing away   (free from attachment)

Ālaya (m. & nt.) [cp. Sk. ālaya, ā + ;lī, līyate, cp. allīna & allīyati, also nirālaya]

1. orig. roosting place, perch i. e. abode settling place, house 
2. “hanging on”, attachment, desire, clinging
3. pretence pretext, feint

COMMENT: After meditation or insight practice, trying on these words, might lead you to your own set of similes and a better sense of the body/heart/mind state of freedom.

Image by Ands (Also on Pixabay)

Etaṃ santaṃ, etaṃ paṇītaṃ, yadidaṃ sabbasaṅkhārasamatho sabbūpadhipaṭinissaggo taṇhakkhayo virāgo nirodho nibbānaṃ. –https://suttacentral.net/mn64/en/sujato#9.6 

“This is peaceful, this is excellent, namely the stilling of all preparations, the relinquishment of all assets, the destruction of craving, detachment, cessation, extinction”. 

Alternative translation: “This is peaceful, this is sublime, namely: the calming of all constructions, the letting go of all supports, the extinguishing of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibbāna.”     AN 10.60 at AN V 111, translated Bodhi (2012: 1413)

Reflection and Meditation

Dhamma reflection and silent meditation.

Topic: Tasting the cessation of suffering

Embodiment References

Lisa Fisher’s Everyday Blackbelt (Mind-body training for more peaceful relationships)

Nkem Ndefo’s Lumos Transforms (Embody change, unlock potential, transform our world.)

Paul Linden’s Being in Movement (mindbody education, stress reduction, compassionate power, peacemaking)

Staci Haine’s Soma Social Justice (Be connected. Be emboldened. Be a force for good.)