A BUDDHIST VIEW OF SUFFERING.
A Buddhist View of Suffering
Buddhism is a religion pretty centrally concerned with suffering. It
never really stops studying the suffering of oneself and that of other
people. These form a central focus of the religion, its practice and its
philosophy. One is encouraged to explore what suffering is, the various
forms it comes in and their root causes. Though they can all be reduced to
attractions and aversions based upon the illusion of a real self, which
desires certain things and is averse to others, yet this is not
immediately obvious or a point easily grasped:
“And the people, who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth, then it’s far too late, when they pass
away.”
[George Harrison, Within you without you, 1967]
We live much of our lives in an entangling spider’s web of these
desires and aversions. Buddhism aims at the demolition of the self, the
creation of subtle mindfulness, bliss, great compassion and moderation and
gentleness. These must be cultivated within a general atmosphere of
subduing the passions, subduing the desires and aversions and of
cultivating reflection and a caring attitude to all life.
The Theravada tradition primarily emphasises ethical conduct,
mindfulness and self-restraint, which aim at achieving enlightenment,
probably after many future lifetimes. The Mahayana tradition primarily
emphasises the attainment not just of enlightenment, but also of full
Buddhahood. This subtle difference means training not just to gain
insights and personal release from Samsara, but also to actually become a
Buddha, a fully enlightened being who compassionately helps others through
their lives to attain wisdom and realisation. In the Mahayana, the
emphasis is upon becoming a bodhisattva, which is a Buddha-to-be who
strives for the enlightenment of others ahead of his or her own. The
Tantrayana comprises Mahayana paths that aim to achieve full Buddhahood in
this lifetime.
In the Mahayana Zen tradition, the rather ruthless destruction of the
self through reflection, passivity and self-denial is the fruit of a life
of great discipline, simplicity and focus. In this way, it aims to achieve
perfection of mind control and ethics through the exhaustive realisation
of emptiness and mental stillness:
“The farther one travels
The less one knows.”
[George Harrison, The Inner Light, 1969]
All other aspects of human life, and even Buddhist scriptures, are
deliberately reduced to a stark minimum. The meat of the Zen life is
unrelenting confrontation with one’s own psychological shortcomings:
“We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after
year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.”
[Pink Floyd Wish you were here, 1975]
The Tibetan tradition strives for the attainment of selflessness
through practising extraordinary compassion and by putting the suffering
of others before one’s own to develop the very special, selfless love of
a Buddha as well as his wisdom. This strives to develop these two key
aspects of Buddhahood together, side-by-side. Mindfulness and meditation
also play a prominent role. Ritual, visualisations, rote learning of
scriptures and engaging in debates on the finer points of doctrine are
also used to maximum effect arousing religious feeling and a thorough
understanding of emptiness.
It is true to say that Buddhism begins and ends in the study of
suffering. This lies at its root just as it lies at the root of life
itself. We are born into suffering – “like a dog without a bone, into
this life we’re thrown” [The Doors] – and we all must die and
experience pain and loss. Obviously, we also experience great joy as well,
but suffering seems to be a dominating influence of all life and in our
lives. Buddhism concerns itself very much with the study of suffering in
all its forms, what it is, how it arises and how its causes might be cut,
overpowered or transformed into a life-plan that minimises suffering
coming into being, by cutting off its causes within one’s life,
attitudes and behaviour. In this way, a ‘new life’ can be forged when
effort and determination are harnessed to the task. Real change and real
improvement are only possible when great effort is made at the right
tasks. Such are the schools and paths of Buddhism. It is thus a religion
of self-transformation and self-improvement, through application of
continuous effort:
“Try to realise it’s all within yourself
No one else can make you change.”
[Within you without you, George Harrison, 1967]
Because Buddhism is a religion primarily involved with suffering, so it
especially identifies with the working classes who are burdened with ‘failure
in life’ and the suffering of delay, lack of progression, frustration
and poverty, etc. Buddhism therefore identifies to some degree with all
poor and suffering people like that, as it makes a central study of such
figures. It identifies as a subject of its own study, therefore, with the
grosser forms of human suffering, which are predominantly found in the
lower social strata of society. This is not to say that rich and
privileged people do not experience suffering, or even those happy people
who happen to be enjoying life now. They also suffer to some extent.
In any case, there are subtle and pervasive forms of suffering and
impure states of mind even for rich and happy people. They also suffer
losses, disappointments and frustrations. They are also burdened with
jealousy, avarice, fear and desire. Yet, suffering is predominantly
confined to the poor and lower classes compared with the rich. One of the
defining features of working people is that they suffer more than average
setbacks and disappointments in their lives. They therefore form a good
subject of study for Buddhists. Their position in society gives one a
justifiable sympathy towards them, and one is predisposed to empathise
with their suffering, even if a strict Buddhist might contend that their
suffering is the ripening of their own bad karma [is their ‘own fault’]
or that it is illusory in the deeper sense of it being an aspect of a
non-existent self that is a mental construct.
It can truthfully be said in Buddhism that meditation and mindfulness
on their own may not achieve selflessness, because employed alone these
forces do not directly counteract the ego. The ego must be tackled; it
must be subdued and diminished if true realisation is to occur:
“When you’ve seen beyond yourself then you may find
Peace of mind is waiting there.”
[George Harrison, Within you without you, 1967]
For example, one can engage in meditation and mindfulness for years,
know all the great teachings by heart, and yet still remain innately
arrogant. This is because our sense of self is so persistent and so hard
to dislodge. In some of us, the self becomes too solid and we identify
with this mind, this body and the details of this life too tightly. We are
then very reluctant to let these elements go, to loosen their grip and let
ego melt away:
“I built my prison stone by stone
how many useless knots I tied
I dug the pitfalls in my path
how many useless tears I cried.”
[Robin Williamson, Cutting the Strings, 1970]
If we rely on these matters so much then our sense of self is very
powerful; if, however, we loosen our sense of identification with our
body, our mind and our position in life, making them slightly more distant
and less important, that is being non-attached to them, then the sense of
self becomes correspondingly diminished. But awareness then brightens and
joy and compassion actually become possible:
“You give all your brightness away and it only makes you
brighter.”
[You get brighter every day, Mike Heron, 1967]
It seems one cherishes others to the degree that one no longer
over-cherishes the self:
“You never enjoy the world aright
Till the sea itself floweth
In your veins and you are clothed
With the heavens and crowned with the stars.”
[Thomas Traherne]
This is the correct application of non-attachment and mindfulness as
spiritual antidotes of egotism. Whether through emptiness or compassion,
or patience, or giving, somehow or other one must release the grip of the
ego in order to achieve great realisations. There simply is no other way.
It is the resistance the ego puts up against the realisation of
selflessness and emptiness that prevents us from gaining good insight.
This resistance can be enormous in those who have habituated a very solid
identification of their current consciousness and life situation with the
bright and empty awareness that underpins all life and flows through all
things:
“And to see you’re really only very small
And life flows within you and without you.”
[Within you without you, George Harrison, 1967]
Ego is terrified of its own extinction above all else. That which flows
through all things cannot be destroyed, thus no fear need arise.
When these ideas become fully absorbed and appreciated, it then becomes
possible to understand why Buddha was called the Subduer, the World
Conqueror, the Tathagata, the One-Gone-Thus, the World Honoured One, the
Great Sage of India, World Teacher and the One Gone to Bliss [Sugata] for
truly when ego is destroyed and a joyful and compassionate selflessness
has emerged, then mind has truly merged into bliss, which is Buddhahood.
Strive to be “not attached to the pleasures of mundane
existence.”
“craving cyclic existence thoroughly binds the embodied.”
“Emphasis on the appearances of this life is reversed.”
“If you think again and again
About deeds and their inevitable effects
And the sufferings of cyclic existence,”
“generation of a complete aspiration to highest
enlightenment,” which is the same as “the supreme altruistic
intention to become enlightened.”
“Have entered into the iron cage of apprehending self (inherent
existence),”
“the realisation of emptiness,” which is “the cause and
effect of all phenomena.”
from Tsong Kha pa, Three Principle Aspects of the Path