Sweep the dust, Push the dirt

[This week I am reprinting a short article I wrote on the basics of Buddhism.  It was quick, short and blunt; without (at least I tried) a large amount of language that would be unfamiliar to readers with no experience in the Dharma.  Enjoy and feel free to comment]

The Four Noble Truths

The first (and arguably the most important) sermon taught by the Buddha concerns the four noble truths. The core of any Buddhist’s belief structure and any practitioner’s practice finds its heart within these four simple but deep statements. 

The first noble truth is that life is frustrating and painful. Even moments where we may be happy, the world around us is suffering. The quickest path to compassion is to understand the first noble truth. We, all of us, are subjected to old age, sickness and death.

The second noble truth is that suffering has a cause. Suffering exists because we constantly struggle to survive, cling and define ourselves by things that are impermanent. Like trying to grasp and hold onto water; it is ultimately futile. The more we struggle to grasp impermanent things in a world constantly in flux, the more painful is our existence. It isn’t the actual experiences that cause suffering, it’s our attachment and clinging to those experiences. It isn’t the food that causes the stomach pangs, it’s the hunger.

The third noble truth is that the cause of suffering can be ended through non-attachment. By realizing and working to cease the clinging to sensual things our struggle becomes unnecessary.  We can form relationships with our spouse, children and friends without wishing them to things that they were in the past or expecting them to be in the future. This, to a Buddhist, is living in the moment. Simple engagement with the moment leads to simple pleasure.

The fourth noble truth shows one how to achieve that non-attachment. The Buddha outlines the path a practitioner can take to end the cause of suffering called the Eightfold Path. The first two points of the path (Right View and Right Intention) operate through the cultivation of wisdom, the third through fifth points (Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood) are concerned with the cultivation of proper ethical conduct while the sixth through eighth points (Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration) have most to do with mental development. 

Nirvana

“Upon a heap of rubbish in the road-side ditch blooms a lotus, fragrant and pleasing”—The Buddha from The Dhammapadda

Our goal is the nirvana of cessation. The cessation of anger, ignorance and jealousy while cultivating compassion, wisdom and mindfulness.  The greatest surprise perhaps is that nirvana always existed for us. Once we remove the clutter and wipe away the dingy film of the skandhas this begins to become clear. This achievement can be made by any practitioner that follows that path.  What you actually identify yourself is of little concern. The Buddha’s teachings are open to everyone to apply to their daily life and are not the sole provenance of monks and meditation masters, Buddhists or renunciants; it is always open, at some level, to those that are open to and willing to embrace change.  It is the conclusion of a life spent juggling great doubt, great faith and great striving.

Cheers,

John

Part 1  A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Intro

Part 2 A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Suffering  

Part 3 A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Impermanence

Part 4 A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Egolessness

Part 5: A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ The Five Skandhas

[This week I am reprinting a short article I wrote on the basics of Buddhism.  It was quick, short and blunt; without (at least I tried) a large amount of language that would be unfamiliar to readers with no experience in the Dharma.  Enjoy and feel free to comment]

The Five Skandhas

“Form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form, form is itself emptiness, emptiness itself form; sensations, perceptions, formations and consciousness are also like this.”— Heart Sutra

Egolessness can come as quite a shock to those starting on the path. The ego, as defined by the Buddha, is a bundle of temporary combinations of mental events grouped into five categories, called skandhas. This differs greatly from most Hindu or Christian concepts where there is a constant “anchor” of an immortal soul that weathers the storm of impermanence like a rock. Meanwhile, from a Buddhist standpoint we are the storm. We constantly changing and altering. What we constitute as “I” is really just bundles of forms that take shape like clouds in a windy sky.

The five Skandhas are 1) Form—The eyes, ears, tongue body and mind 2) Sensations—The raw data that is derived from sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thought, 3) Perception—The classification of those sensations, 4) Mental Formations—Actions linked to thought such as greed, anger and ignorance or wisdom, compassion and enlightenment, lastly 5) Consciousness—Our awareness of the previous four skandhas.

Bottom line is that viewing the world through these skandhas leads to suffering and pain. The reality defined by these bundles of perceptions is false and transient. These bundles of forces are like a the spinning ferocity of a hurricane.  There is no static point anywhere.  Even the “eye” of the storm, the moment of quiescence, is in a constant state of change.  The point of contact of all those swirling chaotic forces has no structure of its own.  Others call it a permanate soul; I call it the still of storm and it ain’t forever but it may be just for this moment.

 Cheers,

John

Part 1  A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Intro

Part 2 A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Suffering  

Part 3 A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Impermanence

Part 4 A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Egolessness

[This week I am reprinting a short article I wrote on the basics of Buddhism.  It was quick, short and blunt; without (at least I tried) a large amount of language that would be unfamiliar to readers with no experience in the Dharma.  Enjoy and feel free to comment]

Egolessness

“Talking about food will not get rid of hunger.”—Hui-Neng

Easily the most misunderstood of the Buddhist concepts is the idea of egolessness or anatman. In Hindu as well as Judeo-Christian tradition there is a steady belief in the persistent nature of an individual’s soul. Throughout the impermanence of the human body, the fleeting nature of the mind as well as the mutable character of the consciousness; the soul continues to exist in some form in either an afterlife or reborn in a new body. Buddhism pushes the envelope a step further by supposing that the soul itself is a creation of our delusions—a fiction.

The existence of an immortal self is a comforting thought but ultimately unrealistic and does little toward alleviating the suffering of the human condition. It serves to scratch only the most superficial surface of our suffering by displacing a portion of the human concern over old age, sickness and death. Even the hope of an immortal self is a craving as well. This craving causes clinging which, in turn, leads to suffering.

The sense of “self” is really just the causal process that leads from one form to another. Just as when the illusion of movement in a movie is shattered when looking at the reel, image by image; the illusion of a self is destroyed when states are linked together causally. These states can be combinations of feelings, perceptions, dispositions, consciousness and body sensations. These are the five skandhas described next ~ the movie of our life. Again, it may seem nihilistic, but the Buddha taught that once these skandhas were understood to be empty and the illusion of “self” dissipated we experience something that is not subject to life and death, something that is free of samsara—The cycle of birth and death. That is what the Buddha realized through his introspection.

Cheers,

John

Part 1  A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Intro

Part 2 A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Suffering  

Part 3 A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Impermanence

[This week I am reprinting a short article I wrote on the basics of Buddhism.  It was quick, short and blunt; without (at least I tried) a large amount of language that would be unfamiliar to readers with no experience in the Dharma.  Enjoy and feel free to comment]

Impermanence

“This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is a flash of lightning in the sky. Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.”—The Buddha

We mistakenly and painfully attempt to make a lasting relationship with the objects and people around us.  Things that are constantly changing around us we cling to and try to apply some amount of permanence. We interact with our teenage daughter while still attached to the image of the child or infant that she once was. We are angry that our spouse isn’t the same person they were when we met when that person didn’t exist the day after they first met (or may have never existed, being just a perception). We graduate college with the hope that the freedom and independence in that sheltered environment will continue into the working world. We want the freedom of our young adult days to continue even after the advent of our first child.  We want permanence.

But we are creating a world for ourselves that simply doesn’t exist. When that false world doesn’t meet our expectations we experience pain and cause others to experience it as well. That feeling is impermanence and it hurts. By accepting that the world is constantly changing around us we can focus on the root of the problem – clinging to these false realities.

Through introspection, impermanence emerges as an all-pervading essence marking everything around us. We might attribute an eternal principle, or higher self to explain this, but even that action is made up of temporary thoughts and concepts. Just look at how your own conception of “God” has changed from your childhood to now! Our concepts of a metaphysical world are speculative constructs that may or may not exist. Thus clinging to these invented securities lead to even more suffering and pain (although we call it “faith”). These concepts are created to make us feel more secure in our own permanence – to cement our being with the world. Once again, we feel anxious, even at the peak of our religious practice. It is only when we completely abandon clinging to these beliefs (but not necessarily dropping them entirely) that we feel any relief and can alleviate the suffering of others.

Many Zen masters, after achieving this realization, burnt their sutras (written works attributed to the followers of the historical Buddha) and kicked over the statue of Buddha. Even the Buddha is impermanent. This isn’t a call to reject our beliefs but to not cling to them. I believe in the words of the Buddha but I do not cling to that belief.  Attributing permanence to concepts is as useful as providing a blanket to a drowning man.

Cheers,

John

Part 1  A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Intro

Part 2 A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Suffering  

[This week I am reprinting a short article I wrote on the basics of Buddhism.  It was quick, short and blunt; without (at least I tried) a large amount of language that would be unfamiliar to readers with no experience in the Dharma.  Enjoy and feel free to comment]

The Marks of our Existence

It takes very little imagination to view the world as being defined largely by our own painful and frustrating experiences. Many, when they hear this aspect of Buddhist practice immediately state that it is pessimistic or nihilistic. Nothing could be farther from the truth. By accepting that the world we are in is full of pain, is impermanent (in a constant state of flux and change) and that we are not defined by our perceptions (egolessness) we free ourselves from those illusions and instead focus on the root cause of all this suffering. These three things: suffering, impermanence and egolessness are known as the three marks of existence and form an important foundation for the core Buddhist beliefs.

Suffering

“Accept your life and then face it.”—Dainin Katagiri

Buddhists admit that suffering exists in the world and search for the root of that suffering. This searching can be a personal event where we find the basis of how we, as individuals, suffer or can exist as a wider construct of why the world as a whole suffers. Much of Buddhist practice thus consists of cultivating the tools and methods that will eliminate delusions and increase clarity so as to alleviate the suffering and enjoy the moments, both positive and negative. The methods employed depend upon school, sect and culture. Some see the ultimate goal as reducing delusions while others see the ultimate goal as expressing and realizing one’s own True Nature (the form of Mind that is unfettered by delusions and the cycle of rebirth).

Again, it is this aspect of Buddhist philosophy that gets labeled as “pessimistic” or “nihilistic” but while focusing on the negative aspects of life a Buddhist does not necessarily expect negative outcomes (as does a pessimist) nor does he expect nothing or believe in nothing (as would a nihilist). If a term was fitting for a Buddhist it would simply be realist. We would prefer to always be happy and be surrounded by positive events (who wouldn’t?) but we understand that suffering exists and we need to engage that suffering directly in order to understand it.  Through that understanding, suffering is alleviated for ourselves, those around us and for all sentient beings.

Cheers,

John

For Part 1  A Simple Life: Buddhist Basics ~ Intro