I gave a talk in a public community center in Haugesund, Norway (the so-called “Bible Belt of Norway”, for its dense concentration of Christians), in May 2019.

A student asked if we can use meditation to avoid suffering. “Why sit meditation? Can meditation help us to be free from suffering?“

The answer is, well, “Hell no!”

I always emphasize that meditation is not some panacea. (Though it’s very, very close!) It means having connection with that infinitely vast and indescribable expanse of subject/objectless no-birth/no-death true nature, the consciousness that does not appear or disappear, or come and go. Being rooted more firmly in this, the mind does not become free: it returns to its original freedom. Then even suffering or happiness, coming and going, cannot shake you.

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