Denial and Suffering
Suffering is something we usually do not want to know - we just want to get rid of it. As soon as there is any inconvenience or annoyance, the tendency of an unawakened human being is to get rid of it or suppress it. One can see why modem society is so caught up in seeking pleasures and delights in what is new, exciting or romantic.

We tend to emphasize the beauties and pleasures of youth whilst the ugly side of life - old age, sickness, death, boredom, despair and depression, are pushed aside.

When we find ourselves with something we do not like, we try to get away from it to something we do like. If we feel boredom, we go to something interesting.

If we feel frightened, we try to find safety. This is a perfectly natural thing to do. We are associated with that pleasure/pain principle of being attracted and repelled. So if the mind is not full and receptive, then it is selective - it selects what it likes and tries to suppress what it does not like.

Much of our experience has to be suppressed because a lot of what we are inevitably involved with is unpleasant in some way.

Morality and Compassion
That is why we have to have [Buddhist] laws such as, 'I will refrain from intentionally killing', because our instinctual nature is to kill: if it is in the way, kill it. You can see this in the animal kingdom.

We are quite predatory creatures ourselves; we think we are civilized but we have a really bloody history - literally. It is just filled with endless slaughters and justification for all kinds of iniquities against other human beings - not to mention animals - and it is all because of this basic ignorance, this unreflecting human mind that tells us to annihilate what is in our way.

However, with reflection we are changing that; we are transcending that basic instinctual, animal pattern. We are not just being law-abiding puppets of society, afraid to kill because we are afraid of being punished. Now we are really taking on responsibility.

We respect the lives of other creatures, even the lives of insects and creatures we do not like. Nobody is ever going to like mosquitoes or ants, but we can reflect on the fact that they have a right to live. That is a reflection of the mind; it is not just a reaction: 'Where is the insecticide spray.' I also don't like to see ants crawling over my floor; my first reaction is, 'Where's the insecticide spray.' But then the reflective mind shows me that even though these creatures are annoying me and I would rather they go away, they have a right to exist. That is a reflection of the human mind.