Death, illness, the frailty of old age, the loss of our livelihoods, the limitations of not being able to be with friends or loved ones, fear, panic, anger, prejudice, division. These aspects of our current everyday lives, needless to say, are true suffering. Right now, it sometimes seems as if this mass of sufferings is threatening to engulf us or overwhelm us. The world seems to be on fire all around us, and we may feel powerless as it burns. This true suffering, which has always been there, is so prominent to many of us right now that we may feel unable to distract ourselves as usual with the trance of materialism. When that refuge fails us, what can we do?  This place where so many of us find ourselves these days is exactly the place where the Buddha’s teachings begin. The Buddha’s mission was precisely to show us how to move on from there, rather than remain stuck. Together, we will look at how each step of the path taught by the Buddha pertains to the current world situation, and how we can transform our suffering into fuel and traction on our path to finding true freedom from suffering for ourselves and for all sentient beings.