Religion & Spirituality
Andrew kicks off a series of talks on the 4 noble truths and the eightfold path, speaking on the first noble truth: dukkha!The first truth has often been misinterpreted as the Buddha making a claim that "life is suffering", but rather than a claim to be believed, the Buddha is offering a task to be put into practice centered around embracing the difficulty and vulnerability of our lives rather than running from it. His teaching captures the essence of the reality that when we resist pain, we suffer further, when we embrace pain, we experience freedom from the unnecessary layer of suffering that comes from reactivity and avoidance.