OU blog

Personal Blogs

Asoka

New blog post

Visible to anyone in the world

I find the Buddha’s teachings hard to live up to, but I keep trying. Sometimes I feel so angry and I can get hateful. I can get extremely agitated and stressed out. 

I try to practise the teachings on right effort but there are days like today where I seem to completely fail. Willpower by itself isn't enough.

My moods change like the wind. I can wake up with completely different neurochemistry than when I went to sleep. The anger within can feel overwhelming at times.

I seem to be different to other people. I have a mood disorder and it feels very physical to me, it's not just something in the mind, it feels like a physical problem with the brain.

I am having a break from listening to or reading about Dhamma at the moment, as I just can’t live up to what the teachers are saying. I'm grateful for what I've learnt from them, but it’s starting to stress me out now, I try to follow their advice and I can’t seem to be able to, no matter how hard I try, I still get angry.

I won't give up though, I will persevere, I just wanted to write this in case it helps someone else out there who struggles like I do.

I'm not perfect, I'm a lousy Buddhist if I'm honest, but I keep trying.

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Martin Cadwell, Wednesday 5 August 2026 at 15:13)
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 1461073