Buddhism in 438 Words

[Photo by John Wigham]

As our final topic in my time as a guest blogger at A Pagan Sojourn, we were asked to write, in 300 words or less, a synopsis of our path. Well, my attempt came in at 438 words. So sue me. :) This is cross-posted from A Pagan Sojourn:

Joseph Campbell observed that there are three ways in which mythologies—our current religions—reconcile our existence to the world’s conditions. The earliest mythologies affirmed existence. They taught that the world is perfect in all its horror. The next set of mythologies to emerge denied life, providing a means to escape the horror to something better beyond. The third type of mythology surfaced with Zoroastrianism: The world was originally good and subsequently fell, resulting in the "human condition." In this third type, which is the basis of the Judeo-Christian traditions, people are to align themselves with the forces of good and work to eliminate evil.

Early Buddhism may have tread on Hinduism’s heels as a "denying-type" religion. However, Mahayana Buddhism, the type I practice, is an "affirming" religion. The tagline for my blog, "This world—just as it is with all its horror, all its darkness, all its brutality—is the golden lotus world of perfection," says it perfectly. The world is as it is, beautiful, wondrous, awe-inspiring, even in its brutality.

Suffering exists. This is the first noble truth. Having been born, we will suffer. Suffering has a cause. This is the second noble truth. Look at the world around you. I challenge you to find something cause-less; suffering is no different. Next is the third noble truth. I like to call Buddhism the ultimate optimistic religion, and the third noble truth is the reason: Suffering can be ended. Like anything, if the cause is removed, the effect does not occur. If we remove its oxygen supply, a candle flame will expire. In the same way, if we can figure out a way to remove the cause of suffering, suffering itself will not occur. Toward this end, the Buddha discovered, and taught, the fourth noble truth: The path that leads to the end of suffering.

If we were only to seek for our own escape from suffering, Buddhism might register as a "denying-type" mythology. But a key practice transforms Buddhism into a life-affirming religion. While we work on the path noted in the fourth noble truth, we also realize that we are already Buddhas. We look for perfection within ourselves by recognizing that our intrinsic nature is ultimate perfection.

We are already endowed with Buddha qualities, or Buddha perfections, the moment we are born, even at the beginning of our existence. The only problem is that somehow we are trapped in samsara, which comes about from the accumulations of our defilements. So if we are able to purify our defilements, then we discover that we are already Buddhas, already enlightened ones.¹

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¹http://www.buddhistinformation.com/tibetan/six_paramitas.htm

Technorati Tags: Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, Buddha-nature

The Buddha as Doctor

[Photo by Herbert]

When we're ill, what do we look for in a doctor? Do we look for a doctor who can see the symptom, maybe a cough or a sore throat, and just treat the symptom without ascertaining the cause of the illness? Sure this doctor provides temporary relief, but your illness (or a similar one) is bound to recur if you don't root out, and remove, the cause. Therefore, a better doctor, having observed your symptoms, also determines the cause of your illness. It will probably take longer to remove the cause than it would have to just treat the symptoms, so therefore it is ok to treat the symptoms, providing immediate relief, as long as one still undertakes the removal of the cause. A better doctor still, having relieved the symptoms and treated the cause, also instructs you in how to prevent the cause from recurring.

In the same way, the Buddha is a doctor of our lives. He first taught the most fundamental of his teachings, the Four Noble Truths. The first noble truth is that suffering exists. This truth is like identifying the symptoms. We look at our experiences and ask, "Is this suffering?" Through wisdom born of our practice, we learn to distinguish suffering from non-suffering. Many things might not seem like suffering, yet in the long-term, are. Just so, many things might seem like suffering now but, in the long-term, are not. With this truth, we identify suffering as it exists.

The second truth is that suffering has a cause. This is like the doctor identifying the cause of the illness. With concentrated insight, developed through our practice, we learn to identify the cause of our suffering. With limited insight, we are capable of finding superficial causes to our suffering. With increasing insight, our findings deepen, and we begin to root out the poisons truly causing our suffering.

The third truth is that we can bring an end to suffering by eliminating its causes. This is like the doctor who understands that there is more to the symptom than meets the eye—it has a cause, and if we remove that cause, the symptom will abate of its own accord.

The fourth truth is the path that leads to the end of suffering (the removal of the cause of suffering). This is like the doctor who relieves your symptoms, treats the cause, and teaches you how to prevent the cause from recurring—the perfect doctor.

With Right View, we recognize the views that cause suffering and learn how to eliminate them, while promoting the views that bring true joy and compassion. With Right Intention, we vow to devote all that we have to eliminating the causes of suffering and the practice of loving-kindness. With Right Conduct, we act in ways that do not (or minimally) harm others and that foster great virtue on our part. With Right Speech, we refrain from slandering others, lying, and inciting hostility or aggression. With Right Livelihood, we engage our lives with a job that is non-harming in nature. With Right Effort, we continuously direct our energy toward the abandonment of unskillful states and the generation of skillful states. With Right Concentration, we engage the ability to focus our minds and penetrate, with deep insight, into the causes of things, into our true nature. With Right Mindfulness, we place and maintain our attention, strengthened with concentration, on our body as it is, our feelings as they are, our thoughts as they are, and our consciousness as it is.

A good doctor is important; the Buddha much more so! Our doctor can heal us of our physical ills (and sometimes our psychological ills). The Buddha points us toward the path to the removal of all suffering, to peaceful loving-kindness, with total compassion and love for all beings, sentient and insentient.

Technorati Tags: Buddhism, Four Noble Truths, doctor, Eightfold Path

Two Guardians of the World

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The Four Noble Truths mark the basis of Buddhism: 1. Life contains suffering; 2. Suffering has a cause; 3. Therefore, suffering can be ended; 4. The path that leads one to remove the causes of suffering is the Eightfold Path.

In Buddhist psychological thought, the grounds of suffering are the three unwholesome roots: Greed, Aversion, and Delusion. The thing I love about Buddhism is its completely optimistic, inspirational viewpoint: Noble Truth #3 says that suffering can be ended! Now it is solely up to us to devote ourselves to that task. We can end our suffering, but it takes great vigilance and practice. To help us in this task are the Two Guardians of the World: Moral Shame and Moral Dread.

Moral Shame and Moral Dread give us the means, and the strength, by which we can overcome the three poisons of greed, aversion, and delusion. To bring to an end the seeds of greed and hatred in our minds, we have to commit, to vow, to never engage in an action based in greed or hatred again. How do you know if you're thoroughly committed to this vow? When you fail in your vow, when you yell at your child or pet out of anger instead of compassion, when you become irritated at your co-worker, do you feel utter shame at your transgression? Do you completely dread the repercussions of such a failure? If the answer to either of these two questions is no, then you are not yet truly committed to your vow.

Moral Shame and Moral Dread are the thorough shame and fear that permeate your being at the thought of acting out of greed, anger, or delusion, and that renew your strength to continue fighting to keep your vow after you've violated it. We must work to develop these two guardians so that they keep vigilant watch over our thoughts, speech, and actions. They teach us the true peril to our very lives of delusion, greed, and anger.

Technorati Tags: Buddhism, unwholesome roots, three poisons, greed, anger, delusion, guardians, Four Noble Truths

Narcissus and Attachment

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From Ovid's Metamorphoses (Gregory, Horace. "Book III: Echo and Narcissus," 1958.):

Again, again his arms embraced the silver
Elusive waters where his image shone;
And he burned for it while the gliding error
Betrayed his eyes. O foolish innocent!
Why try to grasp at shadows in their flight?
What he had tried to hold resided nowhere,
For had he turned away, it fell to nothing:
His love was cursed.

This excerpt comes from the well-known story of Narcissus, who was cursed by Nemesis to fall in love only with himself. Narcissus's love kept him pining away at the "pool, well-deep and silver-clear," lusting after his reflection, until his death, having wasted away, drained by his futile attachment.

How attached are we to something about ourselves? Narcissus lives within all our psyches, and not necessarily in the form of attachment to our physical appearance (although that's a common one!). Narcissus can seize anything you consider yourself to be better at than others. If you think yourself smart, this may become your curse. The test? If someone challenges your intelligence, how do you react? Are you angered by the comment? Do you repress the anger under the guise of not caring?

If your reaction is anything but unconditional compassion for the person who challenged your "trait," Narcissus has exerted his influence on you, attaching you to your trait. At this point, a (perceived) attack on your trait is a direct frontal assault on YOU!

The Buddha, in his unwaveringly optimistic way, taught us that, yes, suffering exists. But, he continued, it has a cause (many, actually), and if you remove the cause, the suffering will cease! Therefore, unlike Narcissus, we are not doomed to death consumed by our attachment. We can look deeply, discover the causes of our attachment, and remove them.

1-Minute Contemplation: What traits of yours are you attached to? What aspect of you, when challenged, seems to provoke an unnecessarily emotional response?

Technorati Tags: Buddhism, attachment, Ovid, Metamorphoses, Narcissus, Nemesis, Four Noble Truths

Right View and The Four Noble Truths

I'm reading through the May 2006 issue of Shambhala Sun, and I'm reminded that one of the uniquenesses of the Buddha's teaching is that of a specific approach to living. Normally, we tend to approach everything in life, our actions, our thoughts, our interactions with others, in an I/Not-I fashion. In other words, our manner of thinking immediately separates us into I/Not-I. As an example, let's say I'm driving down the street and somebody cuts me off. I glare at him and come down hard on my horn; several not-so-nice words run through my mind. This entire event is completely I/Not-I: I am angry with that other driver; he is causing my anger; I lash out at him, via my horn, via my glare, via my thoughts. But the Buddha said that this method is not so good. It's habitual, so it's easy, but it results in suffering, and fosters future suffering.

The Buddha's first teaching gives us another approach to life, one that bypasses I/Not-I altogether: The Four Noble Truths. These truths tell us that suffering exists, it has a cause, it can be eradicated, and there is a path that leads to its eradication. But how does this give us a different approach to life? It instructs us to view all things, thoughts, actions, speech, not in terms of I/Not-I but in terms of suffering/not-suffering and cause/effect. This might seem like he was just swapping one dualistic viewpoint for another. But that's not the case. Thinking in terms of I/Not-I causes me to suffer: "That driver did something to me! How dare he!" "I didn't get that promotion, but Bill did. I'm a better [insert whatever quality you want here] than he is!" "Why doesn't she like me? What's wrong with me?"

Thinking in terms of I/Not-I leaves us wide open to experiencing anger, jealousy or greed, and delusion. But the Buddha's approach gets us to focus directly on the problem at hand to eradicate the anger, the jealousy, the delusion, that is afflicting us. Instead of being angry at the other driver, we can recognize that anger has arisen and know that he had his reasons for his actions. We can sound our horn to let him know he should not have done that--maybe he did not even see us initially. But why cause ourselves to suffer (nobody likes being angry!)? Ultimately, we'd like to not react with anger, but with understanding and compassion (while still sounding our horn to let the other driver know of his mistake!). But if anger has arisen (suffering exists), we can know it has a cause (hint: it's NOT the other driver!). We can know there is a way to eradicate that response, and we can know the way to do so. The first and third truths comprise the suffering/not-suffering view, and the second and fourth truths comprise the cause/effect view.

In short, the Buddha gave us the means to directly face our suffering head-on and work directly to remove it, instead of the wallowing that occurs in the I/Not-I view.

Technorati Tags: right view, four noble truths, buddhism