Somewhere in the scriptures the Buddha said there's four types of people similar to Four Types of Racehorses. We get on one racehorse, we go
The Buddha said that most human beings who go off are the fourth type of racehorse. Notice I said, "who go off". Notice I said, "who go off". That means that they eventually develop themselves spiritually. But most humans in the world don't wake up, they don't wake up from the suffering they get.
In the United States they have what is called the Supreme Court, there's nine Judges who are supposed to be very wise and make the last decision on all important court cases. One of the Supreme Court justices was named Earl Warren and he was very well-respected. We read a quote from him, ironically it was in the Bangkok paper, he said "The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn." And that's exactly it.
People experience their Dukkha over and over and over and they don't wake up. If you're one of the first type of racehorse, it means you heard about death, you heard about disease or something and thought, "Oh my gosh, it could happen to me!" and you want to do something. Second type of racehorse, you meet somebody that it's happening to, "Oh my gosh it could happen to me, better start working!" Third type of racehorse, it's someone close in our family who is suffering, "Oh my gosh, it could be me, better start working!" The fourth type of racehorse waits until the Dukkha happens to them and it hurts, and it hurts, and it hurts right down to the bone. Then they start practicing.
So it is possible for insight to come without Dukkha. But that's not why you're here, though. You're here seeking advice from someone who's gone through more Dukkha, , who did not wake up in the first hit. OK? But who has now woken up, and has experience. You're here to take that advice, seek that advice from a Kalyanamitta. And, if you accept advice from someone wiser, whether older, or younger, whatever, take the advice, bring it inside, then maybe you can avoid lots of your Dukkha.
Probably most, or some of you, have had too much alcohol (or perhaps drugs) at least for one night even if it was only when you were 18 years old or younger than you are now.
Now imagine that you are fourteen and somebody you respected advised that it's Dukkha, gave you good reasons for not becoming involved with them and you actually believed them.
You would have never done it, you would avoid that type of suffering.
So this is what we want to do, we want to take advice. We want to look at it clearly, we want to see is this helpful or is it not, and then we will be able to use someone's advice to avoid having that same Dukkha. Then we don't have to have so much suffering.
The second part of the question reads, "Even when there is pain, I don't really suffer." I assume physical pain is what they mean. "Do you avoid suffering?" This depends on whether you're really working the Unpleasant Physical Sensations technique fully.
If you're working fully and you keep going with pain and you're actually not suffering, well, what's the definition of suffering?
It still means that there's pain, and that it's difficult, it's unpleasant, but the mind is not suffering. And that's what we want to do. We want to be able to get to a point where we are with physical pain or mental pain, but the mind is not suffering with it.
Now there is, to a certain extent, some people who delude themselves with this, and, for example in the sense of physical pain, they will only go so far.
You want to be careful about that, whether you're actually working that hard or not.
The whole practice is geared towards learning how to be with things as they are and not suffering in the mind, in the heart. Being with unpleasant things and not reacting to it. Reaction, reaction, reaction, how many times do I say that in the first retreat? How many times does Rosemary say that word in the first retreat? Reaction is the key. Something unpleasant comes to us, we can't always stop that. But how you react to it, that's where you do your work.