The causes for our problems are not to be found on the outside,
but rather they are to be sought within ourselves

Peace Times 13

by Lama Michel

Most people spend their lives searching for solutions to their suffering, without ever seeming to find the right answers, this is because they believe the causes of suffering to be external and so they never look inside themselves.

We mistakenly think that money is the most important thing in life, believing that it will bring to us inner peace and happiness. In reality, we just use our money and wealth to make our senses happy, but inside we continue to live without true peace and happiness. We buy clothes and make-up that make us feel good, we buy objects that look nice, eat food that tastes delicious and so on. But, if we check closely we will understand that those very senses which we try so hard to please are also the cause of our suffering. However fast our car, however big our house, however beautiful our clothes they are never enough to make us happy. When our clothes are out of fashion we suffer, when our car breaks we suffer, when we need to repair our house we suffer... Happiness cannot be bought through pleasing our senses.

Tibetan Buddhism defines suffering as those feelings which we want to be separated from. But, instead of looking within ourselves for the causes of suffering we continuously blame our unhappiness on external circumstances: our family, friends, work, on the political situation and so on. People living in big cities complain that they are too busy, crowded and polluted. Those very same people in Tibet complain that it is too quiet and that there is no hot water or facilities. If we remove what we believe to be the cause of our suffering, we quickly replace it with another. This demonstrates that it is not external circumstances which cause our suffering but that we carry it inside wherever we go. We are never free from suffering and we continue to do things which harm us. To find the real cause of our suffering we need to stop and look inside. We can start practically by analysing our reactions in different situations. If a person says something bad about us we automatically become angry and shout at them - but if we are sincere with ourselves we would understand that it is our own anger and pride which causes us suffering. If we check carefully the situations that cause us suffering we would start to understand that the true causes are our own jealousy, pride, attachment, fear... Instead of sweeping our negative emotions under the table and ignoring them, we need to confront and deal with them. For example, if someone at our place of work is praised by colleagues, instead of reacting negatively out of jealousy and anger we need to try and improve our own work. If a thief steals something from our house - no matter how angry we get the object will not come back - we need to try and understand that it is our attachment to the object which is causing our suffering. When we get caught in a traffic jam, even if we become angry and start to shout and swear, we cannot move the traffic we need to remain calm and accept that we will arrive a little bit late. Some situations are beyond our control so we need to accept them. We already have enough suffering in our life - why make more? To renounce suffering we have to renounce the true causes of suffering.