No conditions are permanent
No conditions are reliable
Nothing is self
-Stephen Batchelor's translation of a coommon Buddhist chant
Buddhism can seem very formidable to those looking for simplicity. Mahayana sutras can
meander into metaphysical and miraculous speculation. Theravada teachings can seem
depressing. While the Vajrayana development of Buddhism contains many esoteric teachings
and practices that are hard for uninitiated students to grasp. Perhaps the only way to
approach the plethora of various Buddhist teachings is to see them as mirrors for one’s
mind and self. If Theravada teachings seem depressing to you, investigate how the idea of
being without attachments to things that cause suffering would make you sad. Do the many Mahayana sutra meanderings
bother you because you have problems with thinking outside of your preprogrammed ruts? Does the idea that there are esoteric teachings handed down only to
certain initiates bother you because you feel that all teachings should be easy-access? You can find many insights into
your own true nature by reflecting in similar ways upon other versions of Buddhist teachings.
To try to understand Buddhism easily, you only need to look at a few central
teachings: The Four Noble Truths, which I call the "four ennobling truths" in agreement with Stephen
Batchelor's understandings of them in his very direct diamond cutter text Buddhism Without Beliefs;
Impermanence, which is touched upon by every religious or spiritual tradition in some way, though Buddhism posits the awareness of impermanence as
a key understanding on the path of enlightened living; and Mindfulness Training, which Buddhism posits as the essential
endeavor combining ethics, concentration, and wisdom as things that can be cultivated through practice. These three facets or components are
inter-related, as the following discussion of them will show.
Four Ennobling Truths: Understanding
Anguish, Attachment, Letting Go, and Living in Awareness:
The first ennobling truth is that life is difficult (and
who can argue with that?); The second is that life is difficult because of attachment
to satisfaction in ways that are inherently dissatisfying; thirdly, every
being has the possibility of liberation from difficulties; fourthly and finally, by
leading a lifestyle of cultivating enlightenment (ethics, wisdom, and meditation) one can
realize ('make real') that liberation for oneself and others.
With its emphasis on the Four
Ennobling Truths, Buddhism starts with the way we are now. Life contains an enormous amount
of suffering and anguish. So we look at that anguish and see where it is coming from. We
learn to understand it. Our very drive to try to make the world perfect for ourselves is
actually the root cause of most anguish. We don’t like what we see. We don’t want to
experience certain inevitable painful conditions. And we judge ourselves, others, or the
world harshly for not being able to get rid of these conditions. We just want an endless
stream of happy experiences and attractions…and we want this so badly that we are willing
to make ourselves and others suffer to get it. Does this make us inherently bad creatures?
Of course not. The desire for happiness is probably the only real meaning we have in life.
The problem is not the wish to be happy. The problem is our methods and our outlooks.
We become too fixated upon our specific goal or representation of what happiness means that
we close off to the myriad other conditions. We try to run away from the things and places
that scare us and find that we have only recreated them. We refuse to see the world directly
as it is. In this narrow, defensive, and self-centered constriction of our perceptions, we
miss many potential experiences and opportunities for happiness.
The traditional way of learning this existential truth is to look at how ‘wanting things
and not getting them is anguish/ having things we want and then losing them is anguish/ having to
be with what we don’t love is anguish/ separation from the beloved and satisfying is anguish/ birth,
old age, sickness, and death are anguish’ (from a daily chant). Then we are asked why
this is so? You see, it is not these things themselves that give us anguish, but our
responses and interactions with these so-called ‘inevitable’ conditions that give us anguish.
This is a challenge to us that reaches both the deep core of who we think we are and what sort of
creatures we really are. This brings us to the next insight…
Anguish is mostly the fault of our grasping, fixations, habits, and attachments. When we get
something that gives us pleasure, we want more and more in the mistaken notion that we can
maintain the feeling of pleasure permanently. Buddhism says that we can look at all phenomena
directly and see for ourselves that there is nothing permanent; not conditions, not feelings,
not thoughts, not our bodies, not things around us, not deities, not religions, not outlooks,
not other beings, not even what we call a ‘soul’. Even pleasures taken too far end up
becoming pains. Having sex for too long will cause pain and cramps. Drinking too much will
cause a horrible next-day. Reading too much will strain one’s eyes. Too much thrilling
entertainment leads to exhaustion, boredom, and even burn-out. This is obvious to anyone who
wishes to be honest. However we don’t like seeing it this way, do we? We believe that there
is such a diversity of experiences and things that if we only maintain the speed of our
desire for them, we can escape the inevitable downside. So we run from thing to thing and
person to person in the incessant search for filling ourselves with a sense of permanent
pleasure. Until we crash, or have a nervous breakdown, or have to take drugs to overcome our
psychological issues. It is the nature of everything to not last. So trying to hold on to
something when we best let go is the root of our anguish. But what do we normally do?
We hold on to things, people, or experiences until we are forced to let go of them.
Or we try to replicate our pleasant experiences by manipulating others or things to become
what we want them to become. Actually, the only force here is our attempt to manipulate the
conditions so that we can keep holding on. Our minds become fragmented and we lose our sense
of connection to life. We become saddened, but even this sadness which could help wake us up,
is pushed away.
In this state we wander around and around chasing after permanence and bliss, not realizing that by doing this we are missing out on life’s true flavor. But we don’t want life’s true flavor, do we? Why? Because the reality of that taste of freedom and impermanence means that there is nothing that we can intrinsically point to and say ‘ours’. It is this concept of ‘ours’ that spins us around even more on this cycle of habitual anguish-causing desire. In this state of ‘ours’, ‘my’, or ‘me’ we try to reify our existence through validation based either on how much we have experienced and whether we feel accomplished, or how we fail. We desire to push away what we don’t like, attract what we like. And we ignore all the rest based upon this state of ‘ours’…the vast majority of the life we live is ignored by us. And yet we claim to have some clue as to how the ‘real world’ works. But what is ‘ours’, ‘me’, ‘mine’, ‘we’, ‘you’ and what is not…this is simply a convention of language for specific contexts. It has no bearing on the totality of reality or even a single ‘lifespan’.
So Buddhism basically has the idea that you should ‘get over’ your self. Lighten up and become willing to face up to your participation and engagement with life. You can enjoy beauty and happiness. You can ease your pains. But attachment is useless if you truly want to enjoy your life. We call this outlook ‘non-attachment’. People often misuse this term. They often say that they are not attached, when they are really just coming up with an excuse to dodge responsibility or to push something away. But Buddhism does not let us off the hook. It points out that the desire to be rid of something is still attachment to it. To understand non-attachment, think of love…everyone has probably gone through an experience dealing with ‘romance’ which led to ‘clingy-ness’. The root of that is the idea that you ‘need’ to have or be with the beloved in order to be happy, or in order to live. But that is really a limiting hellish prison of a mind-state, isn’t it? If you look at loving couples in deeply established relationships, you will find that both people can love each other well because they are precisely not clingy, nor is their happiness entirely dependent on the other person.
"It is the nature of life that all beings will face difficulties; through enlightened living one can transcend these difficulties, ultimately becoming fulfilled, liberated, and free."
-Lama Surya Das
That said, how do we start to cultivate the sort of life that can build on that profound
yet simple approach? Buddhism posits what is known as the eight-fold path. This is really
just a way of living that produces awareness, and supports awareness. It is called
the ‘path of maturity’. It is taking responsibility for your emotions, just as you do your
body if you care enough about yourself. This will produce an ability to live with the taste
of freedom; the flavor of life we are normally too busy in our own personal schemes to stop
and experience. We normally think that if we fill up our lives with things, ideas, people, experiences, and the stories we tell ourselves, that we will
somehow become fulfilled. But Buddhism shows the futility in this approach. In light of awareness, much of what we do seems to be a sort of
'busy laziness' in order to avoid reality. It is not that the things, experiences, people, etc. are meaningless. Nor are they what is harmful, if we approach these
things from the viewpoint of seeing them as they are. If approached without attachment, many of these things can, in fact, enrich us much more than they could if we fixated on them
as essential to our happiness. How do we enjoy life without being attached to grasping after those things we feel make us happy?
Buddhism posits that a greater happiness can be the cornerstone of our lives if we let go of our fixated and reified grasping/craving of phenomena that can not ultimately
match up to our desire for them to remain permanent. Not one part of the wide range of phenomena we can sense, imagine, or experience will last or remain forever, nor does anything ever stop changing, not even ourselves.
This leads to an understanding of the impermanence of all phenomena (which actually underlies this entire discussion as you are now aware), which brings us to our next focus
in Buddhism.
Another Way of Seeing Impermanence
The impermanence of everything really should be obvious to anyone who has experienced their own mind’s
wisdom and insight even for just a moment. Another way to put it is
the only thing we can absolutely rely upon is impermanence. It is because of this that we are exhorted to
"cling to nothing whatsoever." Buddhism does not let us off easy on this one.
The teachings point us to not getting bogged down in intellectual speculations about
impermanence. It is not meant that we should see things as meaningless because of their intrinsic impermanence.
That would be misapprehending the reality. ("Those who are attached to impermanence are incurable" as the saying goes.)
We are meant to open up to the reality that we experience impermanence every
single moment. Think of yourself. Your past is gone. And you would have no chance of a
future if not for impermanence. You only have the present moment. Think of who you are and
who you have been. Though there is some measure of continuity, you really can’t say you are
intrinsically the same person you were in the past. You can only say you are the same person
in a social/conventional sense. And that’s it. There is no use trying to see yourself as a
permanent and fixed identity. Even a cursory look at your own body will show you this truth
directly. We have a saying that
goes "the future of every experience is its disappearance." We are meant to look at
the ways in which we try to escape impermanence. We are meant to befriend impermanence as our
closest mentor. Even if at death, you were to find that you do, in fact, live on in some
other state, you will still be changing all the time.
Likewise, when we view other people or beings, we tend to assume a permanence of character or state that simply doesn't exist. We too often confuse our first impressions and judgments
as markers of the 'real person'. Without going into the idea of a 'real person' (which is a notion that Buddhists would find 'childish'), the contingent and impermanent nature of everything
prevents the possibility that any judgment we hold about another is good for all time, if any good at all. Now there are habits and tendencies that seem to describe another person, but even the most deeply held habits
can change, and often do so. At any event, even if a person truly matched your judgment, they would still be changing, and eventually they would grow old and die. So impermanence can be seen, even then, to be the basic condition of
all phenomena. From the Buddhist point of view, approaching life with the knowledge of
impermanence is precisely what gives meaning and flavor to existence in all of its happiness and sadness, comedy and tragedy.
This true and spontaneous nature of existence is often overlooked by us in our efforts to build up our walls of fixations and attachments to grasping after that which makes us happy and our aversion to
that which makes us sad. We forget life's flavor in our personal schemes and we rush about seeking confirmation and validity from an existence that
needs no such reifications. It is silly to forget impermanence since we are impermanent as well.
It is ultimately a waste of life, from the Buddhist point of view, to not
seek to cultivate an awareness of impermanence. And deriving a sense of meaninglessness from impermanence is just as wasteful as is trying to
build up some sense of a permanent ego-sand-castle against the continuous waves and winds that lap against it. In Buddhism, the being that stops trying to build such sand castles against reality
is a being that is waking up and moving towards enlightenment. Just as an adult stops playing with children's toys, not because they are bad or wrong in and of themselves, but because they have outgrown such schemes, in Buddhism, a being moving towards
enlightenment (full Buddha-hood) is said to be outgrowing many of the fixations and cravings we adults often insist are intrinsic parts of our lives, no matter how much we may deny they are not.
Awareness/Mindfulness Training
Because Buddhism is meant to be a living practice for those who choose to use it, there are several ways that are offered to practitioners to learn mindfulness. They are typically divided into meditation practice, ethics/morality, and learning to use wisdom. Through meditation we open up to awareness. Because we are aware, we learn the best ways to interact with people, no longer seeking to use them as means for our own ends, or as characters in our personal stories. Because we start living this way, we begin to have a clear mind that more often expresses its wisdom. Most people balk at the idea that they should have training, but they’re just being silly if you think about it. In order to do something well, it is obvious that you need training. Since most of us are not initially used to living in awareness we need to come up with ways of opening up to doing so. Buddhism is most famous for its use of meditation practices to do just that. Meditation is not about trying to make yourself better or more enlightened. It is about starting with who you are now and befriending yourself. It is about waking up. You don’t have to try to become a different sort of being to wake up. You simply need to open yourself.
While this training of meditation practice is going on, Buddhists also practice the
five precepts, which are the moral and ethical underpinning of the sort of life that
cultivates awareness. These are simply: Non-violence, non-theft, sexual responsibility,
mindful speech, and mindful healthy consumption. They are injunctions and challenges to
interact with others in a compassionate way. Not only do we try to refrain from violence
but we try to protect the lives of others. We can not condone any act of killing, nor can
we support it by our lifestyle choices. Not only do we try to refrain from taking what is
not given to us, but we try to contribute to the well being of others. We respect the
possessions of others by not wanting them, but we also work towards preventing others from
profiting from the suffering of anything that lives. Sexual responsibility means taking care
of our bodies and respecting others as beings in their own right and not seeing them as
means to our own gratification. We respect the commitments of others and our own commitments.
Mindful speech means that we are aware of the things we say. It also means that we cultivate
the ability to listen to others. We try to use words to create happiness and awareness. It
also means not judging and not repeating words we are not sure of. Mindful consumption means
engaging in some sanity when it comes to the things we consume. We try not to use more than
we need, and we try to avoid consuming anything that can cause harm to ourselves and others.
It also means that we work to transform our ‘negative’ emotions into something of benefit.
These five precepts are based on the basic goal of reducing suffering and increasing
happiness and well-being. Many Buddhists formally take at least these five precepts
seriously. They are divided into five for the sake of analysis but they are really interwoven approaches to personal
and social activity based on a commitment to wisdom and loving-kindness.
Some Thoughts About Vajrayana Buddhism
The Vajrayana (or ‘Tantric’) Buddhism of Tibet is one of the crowning developments of human spirituality. Practitioners of Vajrayana utilize a plethora of spiritual, psychological, emotional, and cultural techniques to revolutionize the ways in which they see and interact with the world. Vajrayana practices are often called the ‘short path’ to enlightenment, because practitioners often become enlightened within a few years’ training. Vajrayana means literally ‘the Adamantine Vehicle’. However by vajra/diamond, what is meant is something that is indestructible and that can cut through everything. Vajra symbolizes awareness and much more than awareness to advanced practitioners.
Much has been written about Vajrayana Buddhism, both by qualified adepts/masters and by people who know little to nothing. But Vajrayana, like most other forms of spirituality, can only really be learned by personal experience. Also the majority of the practices and teachings are given from mentor to student personally, with all parties involved sworn to not reveal the teachings to un-initiated people. This secrecy is not due to any ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude, nor is it due to any lurid practices. The reason for the secrecy is that many of the techniques and teachings could be psychologically destructive if taken in the wrong context. Learning how to transmute one’s deepest fears and passions should only be done once you have proven an understanding of yourself and the place in which you exist.
The goal of Vajrayana Buddhism, like all of Buddhism, is the full enlightening awareness of Buddha-hood. The outlook is one of basic goodness being our true nature. But it is not a smarmy ‘goodness’ as any practitioner will tell you. Obviously we don’t normally operate from that outlook, do we? We get too caught up in our ego-fictions and our identity-problems to even notice the way the world and ourselves really exists. Vajrayana Buddhism is like a sword slicing away at one’s obscurations, excuses, and justifications, until nothing is left but clear awareness. It is the practice of becoming fully mature while transmuting everything around you into aids of that practice. People who are interested in Vajrayana Buddhism should seek out practitioners and instructors for more information.
Other Thoughts
This treatment has been necessarily brief. It was meant to provoke some thinking or 're-thinking.'
I saved my personal interest/focus of Buddhism (Vajrayana) for last and only included it here because it is one of the most
commonly misunderstood forms of Buddhism, even by other Buddhists. All major versions of living Buddhism contain the various ideas discussed above, however. And as Buddhism becomes acclimated
to Western societies, it is imperative for seekers to get the broadest possible picture. Interested people should really consult the wide assortment of Buddhist ideas and teachings that either have been published lately in the West or that
are alive today in the examples and words of living mentors and guides. If you have read the above ideas and find yourself agreeing with them, you may already be a Buddhist at heart. Whether or not you choose to
become Buddhist however has no bearing on whether you can learn something from Buddhist approaches. Everyone can find insight. The question is "will you?" If you do wish to
explore Buddhism more with the intention of possibly joining with a Buddhist community, take your time and do some research so you can be certain for yourself.
Bibliography/ Recommended Reading
All of the following books can be easily found, either online, or in stores. Anyone interested in reading more about Buddhism would do well to read them.
Buddhism Without Beliefs - Stephen Batchelor (if you read no other book about the subject, this is the only one you need to read.)
Alone With Others - Stephen Batchelor (an in-depth look at existentialism from within Buddhist practice)
Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart - Mark Epstein, M.D. (Buddhist practice and learning from a perspective rooted in Western Psychology)
Awakening the Buddha Within - Lama Surya Das (Buddhism in a very straightforward manner from a well-known Tibetan Dzogchen teacher.)
Inner Revolution - Robert Thurman (a well written account of the historical sweep of Buddhism, its three major developments, and what each one has to offer to Westerners today)
Western Buddhism - Kulananda (an explanation of Buddhism’s rapidly growing Western practices)
The Places that Scare Us - Pema Chodron (a sharp and clear-minded approach towards looking at those things in our lives which we usually deny)
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (a classic exposition of the reasons why Westerners often get into spiritual traditions, and how to avoid those pitfalls)
For a Future to Be Possible - Thich Nhat Hanh (an account of the Five Precepts, and their explanations, as a guide to ethical practice in today’s world, with comments by many other Buddhist writers from both Asia and the West)