Newsletter XXIV - Suffering In A Modern World

Dearest Friends:

As I watched “The Buddha” PBS special last week, I was reminded of the fact that everyone suffers. We all fall prey to its merciless grasp—often without warning— similar to a sudden hailstorm crashing down on streams of sunlight. Whether we are rich or poor, educated or non-educated, male or female—regardless of our race, age, ethnicity or religion, suffering does not discriminate. Thus, a human bond connects all of us: we suffer, but we wish to be happy, because happiness and our natural capacity to empathize with others is our true nature—our primordial beginningless-endless, joyous, indestructible reality often referred to as mind by Buddhists and by others as consciousness or spirit.

Paradoxically, however, we develop a personal “I” ego and a personality, the illusory identity created by the brain and sense faculties. We become so strongly attached to this ego personality that we lose connection to our true self and are motivated and driven to seek things, extrinsic phenomena, outside of ourselves in the search for enduring happiness. We believe, in our illusion, that this investment will yield a positive return. We emerge in modern society as human clocks, ticking and running, requiring that we keep pace as we grasp and become attached like super-glue to material success through the accumulation of money, possessions, education, and employment. We become preoccupied with our individual selves as we cling to our ideas, hopes, and dreams and become very attached to things as we also develop feelings, thoughts, and perceptions about them. We grasp at relationships with attachment, believing that we could never be happy in our aloneness because we need things, reinforced by societal advertising themes of “things go better with coke.” However, we fail to realize that all of these things, our relationships, and the feelings, thoughts, and perceptions about them come and go as floating clouds in the sky or dancing ripples on a pond. They are impermanent and imperfect and do not last, even if the termination is death itself; thus, we become frustrated and dissatisfied. In our delusion, we suffer in the conditioned world of samsara--the uncontrolled cycle of birth and death in which sentient beings, driven by unskillful actions and destructive emotions, repeatedly perpetuate their own suffering.

Ironically, because we often prevail in an egocentric ME rather than a WE generation, we live in a culture where solutions to our suffering often seem to lie in biological, psychological, and social dimensions outside of the self-realization of our spiritual true nature. We neglect, forget, or ignore the spiritual dimension. We seek “quick fix” solutions for our physical and emotional suffering, which are also impermanent and imperfect. We are caught in a perpetual cycle of frustration, dissatisfaction, and suffering. We seek doctors, therapists and anyone who will assist us in pursuit of the “instant gratification” that we demand, which has become a well-established and prevalent norm in our society. Across-the-counter drugs and prescription drugs are abused, and the use of psychiatric drugs among our children and adolescents increases at alarming rates. In addition to medicalizing ourselves, substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs are consumed, often to self-medicate, to the extent that addiction is a national epidemic. Other addictions plague us, i.e. shopaholics, foodaholics, chocolateaholics, coffeeaholics, workaholics, gamblingaholics, sexaholics, and televisionaholics.

For some enigmatic reason we are in denial that things, our relationships, feelings, thoughts, and perceptions and “quick fix” solutions are impermanent, imperfect, frustrating, and dissatisfying. We continue to suffer. We also become attached and addicted to the compulsive chattering of our thinking mind—the drama we create that becomes our all-important “I” ego identity—the drama that consumes us and robs us of connection to our true nature, which causes us to suffer even more. We have forgotten that we only become free to experience our true nature when we no longer identify with the limitations of the physical body and our “I” ego self.

“Make the suffering go away,” we say. Why? Again, we want to be happy. It is our true nature. Yet, happiness eludes us, and we wonder if lasting happiness is a goal we will ever attain because all of our “quick fix” attempts prove to be futile. We continue to grasp for this-and-that, here-and-there things that cause suffering because we don’t seem to understand and accept that they are suffering. With the exception of suffering due to natural, insurmountable causes, our suffering is primarily self-imposed and a symptom of our need for spiritual development. As stated by Seng Ts’an in “Trust in the Heart” (Suzuki, 1972):
To set up what you like against what you dislike—
This is the disease of the mind;
When the deep meaning of the Way is not understood
Peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose.
The Way is perfect like unto vast space,
With nothing wanting, nothing superfluous;
It is indeed due to making choice
That its Suchness is lost sight of.

There is an alternative view of existence in the conditioned world of samsara in which the limitations and confusion of our lives are transcended by our potential for self-realization, spiritual liberation, and enlightenment. A spiritual path is the avenue wherein we experience the truth of our existence. We reclaim the happiness and joy of our true nature, which has, and will, infinitely exist. Everyone, all sentient beings, have the seed of this true nature, waiting to unfold, just as the seed of a flower blossoms and the seed of a tree grows in majesty.

The Buddha discovered this self-realization and enlightenment as he meditated under the Bodhi Tree but admonished us to accept his discovery only through our own understanding and our own experience: “Be a lamp unto yourself”; however, it is challenging for us to understand the far-reaching implications of this truth. In the quest for greater spiritual realization, we are at a loss in knowing how to renounce the illusion of the conditioned world while existing in a conditioned world—experiencing and loving each moment of life at its fullest, with passion and fearlessness, but without super-glue attachment to our endless array of things that are in a constant state of flux.

There is a silver lining in the dark cloud of suffering. Suffering can be a gift when it motivates us and defies us to discover the deeper meaning, purpose, and truth of our lives as found in our true nature. If we fall and break a bone, it is the physical suffering that motivates us to take action and seek the help we need in order to heal. The same is true with emotional suffering. If we don’t feel the pain, we don’t realize that something is wrong, and we don’t take the action that is necessary to alleviate the pain. We often hear of those with addictions who won’t seek help until they hit rock bottom and lose everything—their job, their friends, their family, and often, their sanity. Therefore, when suffering is so unbearable that it is the catalyst that motivates us to seek greater spiritual realization, then suffering is a gift in disguise. Physical and emotional suffering is also a gift if our suffering is the debt we finally pay off for past karma—all of the wrongful deeds and hurts that we inflicted on others, including ourselves. The law of cause and effect escapes none of us; our every action will have a consequence, either in this life or in another life.

“There are no mistakes in life—only lessons, and we repeat the lessons until we learn.” We’ve all been there—repeating the lessons of suffering until we learn—finally asking the questions, “What is the lesson here? Why is the Zen Master of the universe hitting me with a stick? What do I need to learn? How will this lesson help me discover my true nature?” The challenge then lies in transforming the suffering into gratitude for having been given the opportunity to endure and transcend the lessons of suffering for our ultimate good. We also recognize that the outcome of suffering is often the development of our character, as reflected in a poignant statement made by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, renowned for her work with dying patients: “Should we shield the canyons from the windstorms, we would not see the beauty of their carvings.” We agree that suffering the perils of Job assists us in the development of wonderful character traits. However, at the time that we suffer, the development of those wonderful character traits doesn’t offer us much consolation.

We come face to face with the same reality that the Buddha faced: there is suffering. However, the Buddha didn’t settle for mere acknowledgement. Through his own experience, he discovered—and then taught—the truth of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cure for suffering, and the path one has to take in order to end suffering.

I bow.