The Buddhist view on why we experience life as unsatisfactory
“Life is dukkha (suffering)” is the first noble truth in Buddhism. Why life sucks is explained by the Buddha through the clinging khandhā, which some call the Buddhist psychology.
The khandhā is the perceptual and cognitive process through which we deal with what happens to us in life. Clinging to the khandhā creates behaviour patterns, similar to how road tracks are created by the wheels of a cart deepening the track in the road by going through it over and over again.
The book explains this process and how it makes us experience life as unsatisfactory. Once you see the process, you can start to overcome the suffering. The sequel book “Life sucks no more. How?” elaborates on the Buddhist sources of the methods applied in mindfulness and heartfulness.
The book “Life sucks. Why?” is listed on the Mindfulness & MBCT Key Resources of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre of the University of Oxford.
This book is a must-read for mindfulness teachers, mindfulness practitioners and all interested in Buddhism.
The teachings provided by Buddhism are key to mindfulness teachers to understand the basics of mindfulness. The many practical exercises, meditations and short summaries help practitioners in their day to day life. Readers living the Buddha’s teachings will rejoice in the many quotations from the Pali canon sources and Buddhist scholars.
“A beautiful work, distilling ancient ideas so they are very real and useable to us all in leading our lives. What a masterful piece of applied scholarship!“
Willem Kuyken
Ritblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science, University of OxfordTo order the book
If you live in Belgium or the Netherlands, you can best order the paperback book on Amazon.de. For the moment there are no delivery costs to Belgium (but this can change over time). The kindle edition is also available on Amazon.nl. Since recently, the paperback version is also available on Amazon.com.be
The paperback book is also available on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it and Amazon.ca. The kindle version is available on all amazon sites.
Attention: at other sites than the above mentioned, the paperback version may also be available but at a much higher price: this is a reseller taking a huge profit.
Having purchased the book, you get free access to audio recordings in English and Dutch of the 8 meditations in the book and to a larger colour version of the main scheme of the working of the khandha built up in the book.
About the author
The author, Geert Vancoppenolle, °1964, is recognized yoga teacher, certified mindfulness teacher and certified stress and burn-out coach. During his 5 year yoga education he was acquainted with the 6 orthodox philosophies (Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedanta) and the heterodox philosophies of Buddhism and Tantrism. This book is based on his thesis to become yoga teacher, embodied through his path as mindfulness teacher and meditation practitioner. Geert lives in Belgium, Europe.