Why choose Buddhism?---5

Why choose Buddhism?---5

Bhikkhu Dhammavaro

Sufferings in Life

The Pali word Dukkha is rendered as “suffering”, “dissatisfaction”, “stress” or “unsatisfactoriness”; in most cases the former is correct, while at other times the other words may be more appropriate. For this reason I choose to use “suffering”.

In Buddha’s original teaching he stated that birth is suffering, sickness is suffering, old age is suffering, and death is suffering. The Blessed One also said “pleasure is suffering”, why is it so? As all beings seek pleasure, enjoy pleasure, bound up by pleasure, they fail to see that it is transitory, therefore it is unsatisfactory, craving for pleasure is stressful, and therefore is a form of suffering.

We must understand that in the the First Noble Truth, even those life is suffering, it does not mean that suffering is inescapable, it is inescapable for the ignorant people, for the holy sangha it is definitely escapable.

The origin of suffering is craving

The Second Noble Truth identifies the cause of our sufferings. It is our clinging to the idea of separate self which is the cause of suffering, our ego is the force of self craving; which causes us to commit non-virtues and leads to future sufferings.

In this world it is impossible not to see suffering, and try to cure suffering by the removal of all the situations of suffering; but it is possible for us to see the cause of these, it lies within us, deep in our consciousness, the craving for pleasure, for gains, and for existence.

The Blessed One said: “The stopping of craving leads to the stopping of grasping, the stopping of grasping leads to the stopping of becoming, the stopping of becoming leads to the stopping of birth; the stopping of birth leads to the stopping of grief, suffering, sorrow, despair, and lamentation. Thus comes to be the stopping of this entire mass of ill.” (MN. I, 337; SN. II, 1-3) So it is craving that we must stop.

Liberation through the destruction of craving

The Blessed One said it is because that state of Nibbana is Real, is realizable, that is why he taught the way for beings to practice towards it. This job we have to do it alone, the Buddha merely points the way to it. In Buddhist practice we have to annihilate the self, it is this Self that causes all our life’s problems. A great deal of misunderstanding arises on the annihilation of the self, it is not the annihilation of a life, a person who live right now, he or she can still go on living happily, the annihilation is to annihilate the delusion in the our mind, then all misunderstanding will dissipate. When the delusion is removed, the realization will dawn on us.

Nibbana is the Unconditioned, Uncreated, Unborn, Un-originated, and the Uncompounded. We cannot use words to describe it adequately, because it is beyond words. It is characterized by supreme bliss and complete freedom from suffering and is different from ordinary existence, so that no real description of it can be given. The Unconditioned can be indicated by stating the opposite; for it is beyond words and thought.

Buddha describes this as a city with wonderful gardens, groves, pleasant climate, a very happy place, but a city devoid of its residents. Since he has trodded this path of finding it, he proclaim to the world unselfishly the way to it.

The Buddha said: “Monks! There is a not-born, a not-become, a not-made, non-compounded. Monks! If that unborn, not-become, not-made, non-compounded were not, there would be apparent no escape from this here that is born, become, made, compounded.” (Udana, p.80-1)

The non-conditioned is often explained as the final elimination from our own mind, of greed, hatred and delusion. This also implies the perfection of the other positive qualities of selflessness, loving-kindness, and wisdom. The attainment of the Unconditioned is the complete liberation from suffering.

The Way of Liberation---The Noble Eightfold Path

The eight factors of the path are:
1. Right view, the knowledge of the true nature of existence.
2. Right thinking, thoughts free from sensuality, ill-will and cruelty.
3. Right speech, speech without falsity, divisive talks, harsh words, and idle gossips.
4. Right action, the abstaining of killing, stealing and adultery.
5. Right livelihood, having livelihood that harms no conscious living being.
6. Right effort, the effort to destroy the defilements of the mind and to perform virtuous actions.
7. Right mindfulness, the perfection of attention.
8. Right meditation, the cultivation of calm, collected, and focussed mind.

The word ‘right’ means the rightness of action, speech, and thought. This Noble Eightfold Path is a moral living standard and not a religious compliance, since we want happiness in life then we must live in harmony with all other beings.

We all too often are caught up in external forms, but fail to pay attention to the core of Buddhs’s teaching. Although some external forms are necessary, and may vary according to geographical environment and ethnical culture, the essential practice is nonetheless the same, it is contained in the Noble Eightfold Path, or the Middle Way as the Buddha put it. These eight steps are not to be taken as eight separate or consecutive steps, they are actually eight parallel path all fully interrelated.

1. Right view; is seeing that there really is good and evil, there really is suffering, that suffering has a cause, that it can be destroyed, and that there is a way for its destruction.
And also seeing things as they really are, or seeing without self deceit or thought pollution. Taking care to guard unwise mental states so that they don't arise, recognizing that virtue, generosity, and meditation really yield results; and the paths and fruitions lead to Nibbana. Right view is an appreciation of the nature of existence, and therefore is regarded as the beginning of the path. Subsequently this appreciation is replaced by a direct and penetrating discernment of the things that come into contact with the consciousness. This right view is the recognition of the three characteristics of all the physical and mental phenomena. They are:

(1). Impermanence: All phenomena of the universe are constantly changing.
(2). Suffering: Suffering or dissatisfaction is inherent in life.
(3). Selflessness: There is no human being or any other sort of being, possesses of a constant, unchanging, eternal soul or self. Every being is consisted of an ever changing physical and mental formation and is the result of kamma. The self is a facade due to the mental consciousness falsely taking the continuity of body and mind as a static entity, but actually they are an ever changing flux. In Sambodhi Sutta the Buddha said: “To one, monks, who has perceived impermanence the perception of not-self is established.” (AN. III, 165)

When we realize that the object we have just noted is simply movement, and we are just seeing, just cognizing, just noticng the appearing and disappearing of phenomena, and realize the impermanence and other characteristics. This is the Right View.

In Visuddhi magga, it said: “Because the rise and fall are not attended to, the characteristic of impermanence does not appear, as long as it is hidden by continuity.” (Vis,. xxi, Path of Purification. 781)

Another important aspect of Right view is the recognition of the kammic morality. The doer of moral actions will reap happiness and the evil doer will reap suffering at some time in future. The effects of wholesome and unwholesome actions, or the happiness and suffering that result from them do not mature immediately; there is always a time lag, as the resultant happiness and suffering need the support of conditions for them to be matured. After death when the body disintegrates into the elements, but the conscious being’s life-force continues, immediately upon death the rebirth consciousness assumes a new being to carry on this life force; this new being may not be a human being, and may take rebirth in any plane of the thirty-one planes of existence. This new being is a direct successor to the being that has just died. Therefore this new being becomes an uninterrupted continuation of the old being, he or she inherits the balance of merits or demerits accumulated by the old being.

Everything in the universe is changing constantly; every being is slightly different from the moment before; the false identity is due to continuity. The being that is reborn is not the same from the previous one that died; but the continuity tricks the being into believing the identity of a self. The importance of the practice is the continuing effort in see things as they really are, without self deceit or thought pollution.

This is Right view, beyond our ordinary everyday perception. It results from Right concentration and comes from dealing with sufferings in a positive way. When we try to escape from sufferings by either forgetting about it, running away from it, blaming someone else for it, becoming depressed by it, or feeling sorry about it, we are only creating more sufferings.

2. Right thinking; right thinking is to rid ourselves of whatever qualities we know to be wrong and immoral, able to see the harm in sensual desires in that they bring on suffering and stress. It is freeing the mind from adverse emotional effect, such as sense desires, ill will, and ignorance which hinders wise and unbiased decision. When the calm mind attends to the object noted, it is the practice of Investigation of the Dhamma (Dhammavicaya) on the object. The illusory characteristics of phenomena will begin to appear to the vigilant investigating mind. This is Right thinking.

3. Right speech; speaking the truth; not saying anything divisive or spiteful; not saying anything coarse or vulgar, not saying anything useless. Even if we may say something worthwhile, if our listener is not listening then our words would still be useless.

4. Right action; being true to our duties, not acting in ways that would be corrupt or bring harm to ourselves or others.

5. Right livelihood; it is to obtain wealth and living in an honest way, searching for it in a moral way and using it in a moral way. Right speech, Right action and Right livelihood these three constitute the training of morality, their function is to keep the defiled mind under control and to prevent them from reaching adverse degrees. These defilements however cannot be completely eradicated by morality alone, and other paths must be applied to purifiy the mind completely. The morality of Right speech, Right action and Right livelihood must be perfected before one can take up insight meditation. The arising of insight or wisdom requires the purification of the morality (Silavisuddhi). Everytime we note, we perfect the morality of the path also. Purification of the morality is the adherence of the Five precepts (panca sila), or the stricter Eight precepts (atthanga sila), and the novices’ Ten precepts (dasa sila), or the fourfold virtue of the ordained sangha, i.e., purity of Pātimokkha, restraint of the senses, purity of livelihood, purity in the use of the four requisites of robes, almsfood, lodging and medicine.

6. Right effort; persisting in ridding ourselves of wrong and harmful actions, words, and thoughts; persisting in giving rise to good and useful actions, words, and thoughts. Every time we put our attention to note the appearing, staying and disappearing of our five aggregates of body movement, feeling, perception, kammic formation, and switching of consciousness, we are making an effort of noting the impermanence, suffering and self-less nature. This is the Right effort of the Noble Eightfold Path. This is practical mental training, the training of the mind in order to prevent and overcome defiled mind, and to arouse and cultivate the virtuous mind.

7. Right mindfulness; being mindful and not to act inattentively or forgetfully, making sure to be constantly mindful of the four foundations of mindfulness; mindfulness of the body, feelings, mental states, and the Dhamma. The perfection of them cuts off the defiled mind, and with the purified mind ie; the attainment of meditative jhanas, we can see intuitively and clearly the selfless nature of the five aggregates (khanda), which then leads to Enlightenment and ultimately to Nibbana. This is mind training, the development of the faculty of attention. The development of attention, expanded and intensified awareness, and mind can eventually become capable of discerning things as they really are. Right mindfulness is to be aware of the falsity of self, and the problems and suffering in the world. Right mindfulness when applied to our everyday life will bring about a sharpened awareness, knowing the motives of our activities, and this is very important.

8. Right meditation; training the mind focused and resilient no matter what we do or say, no matter what moods that may strike the mind, the mind keeps calm and firm.

Why do we meditate? Meditation is a way of self knowing, self cleansing, self renunciation, and freeing the mind from attaching to the illusory. We have to do our training of observing the code of conduct (Sila) first, this gives rise to a clean life, and it forms the basis for meditation practice. Meditation involves both the body and the mind. In meditation we keep our body still and train our mind so that it becomes peaceful and focused (samatha and samadhi), meditation means simply aware of our being, not judging, not thinking, just being simply aware of ourselves.

Through meditation we learn to detach ourself from our clinging, to realize that ego is coreless, selfless, to free our mind from its defilements and illusions; to realize wisdom and compassion, the ultimate cessation of suffering comes with Nibbana, the complete abandonment of our self-hood. While the Nibbana is the extinction of self, it is nevertheless not mere non existence or annihilation, for the extinction of self is nothing but the extinction of mind’s delusion. Nibbana is beyond words and thought; and the only way to know it is through the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path.

Mind training consists of two areas, the tranquility (Samatha) meditation and the contemplation (Vipassana) meditation. Samatha means mental tranquility, when mental purity is attained through samatha, it is very sharp and see thing as it is clearly, the developed mind then abandons lust and so the mind is free of entanglement. It also has other auxiliary abilities like clairvoyance, remembering pass lives etc. In meditation we achieve three things: (1) Our mind become pure and luminous; (2) This pure mind is used as a tool for penetrating to the truths of phenomena; (3) It leads to the spiritual paths and attainments.

Our human problems are rooted in ignorance or delusion. Ignorance is the root evil of all. All our greeds, hatres, conceit and a host of other defilements go hand in hand with our ignorance. The solutions are to be found in the problems themselves, analyse and scrutinize the problems, and we will find the solution to these problems. These problems can be solved only by giving up illusions and false concepts and bringing our lives into harmony with reality. This can be done only through meditation.

The Blessed One said: “One who has no grasping does not long after things. One who does not long after things is calmed in himself.” (MN. II, 318)

The cultivation of higher mind states, up to the Rupa jhanas or Arupa jhanas meditative absorptions, and these higher mind states serve to unify, purify, and strengthen the mind for the arising of insight. In this ultimate achievement the delusion of self-hood, with its craving and suffering is transcended and severed. The arising of insight or wisdom requires the purification of the morality (Silavisuddhi), and mind (Cittavisuddhi) as its roots. Purification of the morality leads to purification of mind, purification of mind is the attainment of the four rupa and the four arupa jhanas. Besides, it requires the inhibition of the five hindrances, i.e., sensual desires, ill-will, restlessness, sloth and torpor, and doubts. The insight would not arise if the virtue is not purified and the mental quiescence is not developed.

Vipassana is made up of two words, ‘vi’ is a prefix meaning separation, and ‘passana’ is to see, to observe; combining the two words means to observe and separate from our wrong view. Contemplative meditation is seeing the phenomena as they are, ie; impermanence, unsatisfactory, and selfless, and gaining insights into them so that our attachment and our ignorance to those phenomena around us could be abandoned, and gaining freedom by wisdom. (AN 2.3.10)

All phenomena around us are nothing but composite of materials which are made up by the four basic elements, i.e., earth, water, fire, and air. The Blessed One advised his disciples that to effectively destroy our wrong view that the form or body as ‘me’ or ‘I’ or ‘belongs to me’ is to investigate or contemplate thoroughly from outside of us first, then gradually working inwards to our body. Next you investigate from the past, present, and future times, next you go to other categories of attachment. One by one where a practitioner works his/her way to eliminate the wrong view or attachment about these forms, with persistent effort one may one day attain the noble fruit (phala), when one is working on those attachment it is considered one is on the path (magga).