"Every form of suffering arises from an over-involved relationship with sense objects.

Don't add to reality. What is, is. Let it be. What isn't, isn't. Don't create more.

What is revealed when we see things as they are is their impermanent, selfless nature, which makes them incapable of giving lasting satisfaction. Knowing their unsatisfactory nature, we lose our our fascination with the conditioned realm of sense objects.

Disenchantment with the world of the senses should not be confused with cynicism or withdrawal. It simply means 'being freed from illusion'.

We are no longer enchanted by the false promises of sense objects, which for years we had hoped might offer lasting happiness."

Emptiness: a practical guide for meditators

"This is how you should train, Bahiya. In what is seen, let there be just the seen. In what is heard, let there be just the heard. In what is sensed, let there be just the sensed. In what is cognized, let there be just the cognized. Then, Bahiya, you will not be in that. When you are not in that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, then you are neither here nor there nor in between. This, just this, is the end of suffering."

Emptiness: a practical guide for meditators

"I see Gotama's vision to be primarily concerned with these fundamentals:

An understanding of conditionality as the context for
A fourfold task:

to comprehend suffering,
to let go of the arising of reactivity,
to behold the ceasing of reactivity, and
cultivate an eightfold path that is grounded in the perspective of

Mindful awareness and leads one to become
Self-reliant in the practice of the dharma." 

After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a secular age 

"We come to meditation with the usual assumption that the thoughts and images and feelings that arise are something that I am doing, only to realize that the thoughts, etc. have a life of their own. It's more correct to say that the thoughts are "doing" me: that my sense of self is composed of mostly habitual ways of thinking, feeling, acting, reacting, remembering, planning, intending and so forth.

One's thinking, feeling, intending, etc. constantly relate back to the self-image of a "me", yet that image too is a conditioned construct.
Conditioned by what? By earlier experiences, both passive (what happened to me) and active (what I did in response).

According to Buddhism, the problem isn't that we have a self; on contrary, there's never been a real self, so there's nothing to discard. Nor do we need to get rid of the sense of self; that's necessary to function in daily life. The problem is a sense of self that feels and believes itself to be separate from the rest of the world.

Realizing that the sense of self is a construct gives us insight into why it is the source of our most problematic dukkha. A constructed self is not something that has any discrete reality of its own. It's a cluster of impermanent and interacting psycho-physical processes that are not grounded in anything more substantial.

The solution to our festering sense of lack is deconstructing and reconstructing the sense of self, so that it doesn't feel so separate." 

A new buddhist path - p. 43-47

"The main purpose of practice is to free ourselves from suffering."

Confusion Arises as Wisdom - p. 170

"There is the cause of suffering and we must eliminate it, and yet there is nothing to eliminate. There is the cessation of suffering and we must attain it, and yet there is nothing to attain. "

Confusion Arises as Wisdom - p. 45

"The Buddha clearly stated the reason for practicing mindfulness: to uncover and eliminate the cause of suffering. That cause is desire. When its cause is absent, suffering cannot arise. At that point, the sutras tell us, one knows a happiness with no hint of anxiety to mar it. But that isn't because sights and sounds magically become permanent, lovely, and the property of Self. Rather, these impressions temporarily cease and consciousness touches a supramundane object called "nibbana," the unconditioned element. Although a mental object, nibbana, the "highest bliss," is not a formation at all; it is unformed and permanent. So the present moment is worthwhile because only in it can we experience nibbana - complete freedom from suffering.

Yet can't sense-impressions be pleasurable? Yes, but pleasure isn't the unending source of happiness we take it to be. In daily life we perceive beautiful sensations as solid and relatively lasting, when in fact they're only unstable vibrations that fall away the instant they form. Like cotton candy that dissolves before you can sink your teeth into it, pleasure doesn't endure long enough to sustain happiness. " 

What's so great about now? - Tricycle:  The Buddhist Review - Winter 2006

"Mindfully noting mental and physical phenomena, we learn that they arise only to pass away. In the deepest sense, we cannot manipulate or actually own them. These traits are unwelcome-unsatisfactory. So the more mindfulness one has, the clearer dukkha becomes." 

What's so great about now? - Tricycle:  The Buddhist Review - Winter 2006

"Only a self has desire (unlike rocks and trees), not because it is some spiritual essence unique in nature, but because the liking or not liking of something is itself what creates the self, the person who likes or does not like what is happening in this moment. This then creates the conditions for suffering to arise, for only a self can suffer (rocks and trees do not). We can only be disappointed if we set ourselves apart from what is happening by wanting it to be other than it is."

The Buddha's smile - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review - Winter 2012

"The point is to leave the mental realm, where most of our unhappiness takes root and grows, and enter into the nonconceptual experience of the present moment, which is purely physical."

Beyond happiness

"It is the nature of our unawakened minds to be bothered about something."

Money, sex, war, karma

"A sense of self is inevitably uncomfortable since, being a psychological construct, it is groundless, and the usual ways it tries to ground itself to feel more "real" just make things worse."

Money, sex, war, karma

"Since the crucial concern for Buddhism is always dukka, the most important thing is avoiding sex that harms others or causes them pain."

Money, sex, war, karma

"Suffering is the desire for more choices than reality offers, but reality is without options."

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 45

"Suffering is a psychological response to feeling, rather than a feeling itself. Suffering consists of the disappointment felt with the passing away of pleasurable experience, or the annoyance and discontent felt in the face of unwanted or unpleasant experience. In short, the suffering is caused by our wanting things to be different than they are."

Unlimiting mind - p. 8

"It is this thirst, desire, greed, craving, manifesting itself in various ways, that gives rise to all forms of suffering and the continuity of beings. But it should not be taken as the first cause, for there is no first cause possible as, according to Buddhism, everything is relative and inter-dependent."

What the Buddha taught - p.29

"A true buddhist is the happiest of beings. He has no fears or anxieties. He is always calm and serene, and cannot be upset or dismayed by changes or calamities, because he sees things as they are.

Although there is suffering in life, a buddhist should not be gloomy over it, should not be angry or impatient at it.

Being impatient or angry at suffering does not remove it."

What the Buddha taught - p.28