Analyzing Suffering
There is freedom in seeing our suffering as it really is. We can analyze our experience, seeing how we feel, who we are, and gaining some understanding into our habitual feelings and tendencies. In an analysis of ourselves we can come to understand that the core of our being is basically good and that we have innate wakefulness, or Buddha nature.
There are layers of delusion that keep us from understanding our true nature. These are things like the small self and it's habitual patterns and the baggage we carry. If we really look into this with insight, we can see that way we see our selves doesn't really match reality that well.
One of the ways we can do this kind of analysis is by studying the four noble truths: the truth of suffering, the causes of suffering, the end of suffering, and the path of the dharma. The first two truths represent an explanation of the situation we are in. The second two represent how we hope to transcend it.
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