Jul 16 2008
Do You Know Why You Suffer?
Buddhism is a system of learning based on logic, on reason, and on a long history of a pre-Cartesian scientific method through philosophical discourse and empirical experimentation. Buddhists have refined the “how”s and “why”s of human suffering to a theory that all are invited to test for themselves. If it doesn’t work, no harm no foul.
The cause of suffering is ignorance, because ignorance is part of and feeds a cycle of causation, known as the Twelve Causes of Suffering. All the distress (anger, sadness, fear, etc.) that you experience is rooted in this cycle, which has plagued humankind for æons; however, it is possible to end the cycle of suffering via adherence to the Noble Eightfold Path as described 2500 years ago by the Shakyamuni Buddha.
#1 As I’ve already noted, ignorance is the cause of suffering. One is not aware of what causes one’s suffering, so one continues to feed their own cycle of causation. Only in the pursuit of true wisdom may one begin the path of true liberation.
#2 Via an innate history of ignorance, one builds the false concept of one’s own selfhood (or ego) as though one’s own self has an intrinsic material value, and this conceptualization is affirmed and reaffirmed by everyone one knows (because they also lack wisdom and have their own selfhood/egos to protect and affirm). If one is wise and is able to escape the illusion of samsara, one realizes that there is no self to protect and affirm.
#3 If one has an ego, it should follow that one is conscious, but what the ignorant person does not understand is that the ego itself bears its own consciousness. The ego consciousness is like a piece of clay that takes shape as one experiences life, and each event results in the molding or scoring of that clay. A wise person does not feed an ego consciousness, and therefore is unaffected by life’s myriad daily events.
#4 And every day, there are thousands maybe millions of events that could affect one’s ego consciousness. If one broke down the consumption of a meal into each separate task and sub-task, the number of events would easily count among the hundreds. Each event that one experiences is a guest or a stranger to which one’s ego consciousness ascribes a name/function that allows the ego consciousness to temporarily cooperate with the guest event. The ego consciousness feels that it must justify its own existence by defining the world around it, but a wise person completely avoids this process. A wise person knows that there is no separation between the self and the other — that all events are part of a fluid continuum — so one needn’t tire oneself with causality. Of course, if one lacks wisdom, one has absolutely no idea that any of this is happening!
#5 After one has welcomed the guest event and slapped a name tag on the guest, one’s ego consciousness introduces the guest to the six senses (i.e. seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, and thinking) so that one may further perceive and categorize the event. A wise person perceives an event as what it is, but the ego consciousness is easily tricked into thinking that an event is something that it is not. For instance, an ignorant person may be easily insulted when no injury was intended.
#6 At this point, the event makes contact with each individual sensory organ. If one is wise, one neither affirms nor ignores the contact that the guest event establishes. A wise person simply acknowledges the contact and continues with one’s day.
#7 After the ego consciousness and the senses have made contact with the event, an ignorant person will experience either a positive or negative sensation (e.g., hunger, pleasure, pain, etc.) but the wise person understands that there is an alternative. A wise person seeks neutral sensation (by employing the Noble Eightfold Path) to avoid the extremes that feed the cycle of suffering; this is also called the Middle Way.
#8 After the ego-consciousness-of-the-person-who-does-not-know-about-the-Middle-Way experiences the event and internalizes the derivative sensation, the ignorant person’s ego consciousness will either tell itself, “Oh! Yes, I like that!” or “No, I did not like that!” Buddhists call this the moment of craving, and every addict knows that it is an extremely dangerous moment.
#9 Attachment (or fixation/compulsion/addiction/obsession) follows craving. An ignorant person who experiences an emotion will almost always choose to heighten that emotion — to become more ecstatic, more angry, more depressed — because they like how a particular event makes the feel. Equally, dangerous is a lifetime spent avoiding a specific event when one does not like how the event makes one feel. Both one’s desire to repeat an event and one’s approach-avoidance toward an event are sources of undue stress.
#10 Now, the attachment becomes a part of the ego consciousness, and the guest is an event that cannot be forgotten or simply erased; it is a part of you. When one welcomes a guest into one’s home and that guest does not leave, one might be forced to call the police to have the unwelcome guest removed from one’s home. When craving becomes attachment, the sensation leaves an indelible stain on the fabric of an ignorant person’s ego consciousness. Returning to the clay metaphor, the attachment often leaves a permanent wedge in the ego consciousness cleaves it or reshapes it into something completely different.
#11 Then the cycle starts all over (usually at the moment of contact) with the birth of the ignorant person’s newly disformed/reformed ego consciousness. And remember this cycle repeats itself with every new event many thousands of times every day! If you have ever gone to bed feeling like a completely different person from the person whom you awoke as, you might now have a better understanding of why that happens.
#12 Anyway, this cycle of suffering just continues to gorge the ego consciousness with sensation, craving, and attachment until the sensation itself ends with a painful ego death — which either results in the birth of another new ego consciousness or Enlightenment (in rare cases).
The preferable, easier path to Enlightenment is via the Noble Eightfold Path, according to the Buddha of this Age. Again, please feel free to try out the Eightfold Path for yourself. It’s easy, and there is no reason why it should conflict with any other belief(s) you may have. If anything, a strong foundation in Buddhism should help reaffirm whatever other faith to which you might choose to adhere. There is no conlflict between Buddhism and Christianiy, Islam, Judaism, Secular Humanism, or any other belief system — even though many of those different religions and non-religions have conflicts among themselves — nor is there anything inherent to Buddhism that should conflict with anyone’s lifestyle as long as a person has love and generosity in their hearts.
Be good to yourselves, my friends. Find contentment where and when you can. Life is too short to waste on anger and hatred and fear.
