Buddhism 101 Read online

  THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

  The Heart of Buddhism

  The Buddha often considered himself to be a physician more than the founder of a religion. As a doctor he offered medicine to heal the illness of the human condition. As a physician, he provided a diagnosis for the human condition (First Noble Truth), an etiology (cause for the condition; Second Noble Truth), prognosis (Third Noble Truth), and prescription for the treatment (Fourth Noble Truth). Dharma—the truth reflected in these teachings—is the medicine. The Four Noble Truths are all you need for awakening.

  TEACHINGS AS VEHICLE, NOT DESTINATION

  The Buddha offered a metaphor: His teachings were a raft to carry the seeker across the river of samsara (a word referring to the cyclical character of reality). Once to the other side he cautioned them to discard the raft. Truth had to be personal, and they should not keep carrying the raft on their back in case it might be useful again some day. The teachings carried on your back in this way are at risk for becoming dogma, and the Buddha wished to avoid that. Any truth must be experienced firsthand and not taken on the authority of a teacher, including himself.

  FREEING FROM SUFFERING

  The Buddha’s teachings were a pathway to letting go of suffering, freeing oneself from pain. The Buddha taught the Middle Way. He knew that excessive pleasure (a life built on sensual delight) or excessive pain (such as the life of an ascetic) led to continual suffering and not to release from that suffering. In his first sermon at the deer park, the Buddha spoke of the Four Noble Truths and the path to nirvana. He presented his truths as a program of action and not just ideas to consider.

  Avoid Blind Faith

  * * *

  The Buddha cautioned, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” Was he advocating violence? No, he was urging his followers not to follow teachers with blind faith, especially those who claimed to be enlightened.

  * * *

  At this first sermon, the light went on for Kondanna, one of the bhikkus (monks), and he experienced awakening as the Buddha spoke. He later said it was as if he knew all the time and couldn’t understand why it suddenly was so apparent to him.

  The Four Noble Truths are as follows:

  1. The Truth of Dukkha.

  2. The Truth of the Cause of Dukkha.

  3. The Truth of the Cessation of Dukkha.

  4. The Truth of the Path That Leads to the Cessation of Dukkha.

  Back to the Buddha’s medical practice: The sickness is dukkha, which infects every moment of existence. The cause of the dukkha is craving or desire. The prognosis is good; while much of suffering is self-inflicted there is a place beyond this mess, and that place is nirvana. The way to get to nirvana (the prescription) is by following the Noble Eightfold Path (listed in the Introduction). Following the Path is the way to healing and the recovery of sanity.

  THE TRUTH OF DUKKHA

  The First Noble Truth

  In the Buddha’s words, “What, O Monks, is the Noble Truth of Suffering? Birth is suffering, sickness is suffering, old age is suffering, death is suffering. Pain, grief, sorrow, lamentation, and despair are suffering. Association with what is unpleasant is suffering, disassociation from what is pleasant is suffering. Not to get what one wants is suffering.”

  Dukkha is most often translated as “suffering” and certainly it refers to suffering. The world that the Buddha lived in was a world that knew warfare, great poverty, and disease. Life expectancy was short and infant and child mortality was great. One cannot progress spiritually if the truth of this suffering and one’s own mortality remains denied. By extension, the suffering of others cannot be denied either.

  The Dalai Lama’s Wisdom

  * * *

  In the movie Kundun, the young Dalai Lama is asked about the causes of suffering. He responds with his characteristic humor followed by earnest wisdom, “I need to squeeze this brain. First one understands that he causes much of his suffering needlessly. Second, he looks for the reasons for this in his own life. To look is to have confidence in one’s own ability to end the suffering. Finally, a wish arises to find a path to peace. For all beings desire happiness. All wish to find their purer selves.”

  * * *

  But dukkha goes beyond these obvious forms of suffering of aging, sickness, and death. It also refers to a pervasive dissatisfaction that colors every moment of life. The Buddha described this aspect of dukkha by the very choice of the term. “Du” of dukkha means “bad” and “ka” means “wheel.” The Buddha invoked the metaphor of a “bad wheel” to capture the essence of dukkha. It is more than suffering. It describes an oxcart whose wheel is off its axle, biasing every movement of the cart; or a wheel that is broken and out of true, a wheel that is missing a chunk. That bumpy dissatisfaction or sense that things are not right captures the more important aspect of dukkha. Buddhism is notorious for its principle, “Life is suffering.” But this is not accurate and paints a bleak picture. Life contains many delights alongside its difficult aspects. Nonetheless, nothing in life escapes dukkha because even the pleasures of life are fleeting; everything is impermanent. In addition, the notion of dukkha as pervasive dissatisfaction suggests that much unhappiness is self-inflicted. It comes from misapprehending the nature of reality and the self.

  * * *

  “This is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realization of nirvana.”

  —Buddha, speaking about the Four Noble Truths and the importance of mindfulness

  * * *

  Think about it this way. If dukkha is self-inflicted, then there is a way out of this misery. And it is to this possibility that the remainder of the Four Noble Truths point.

  THE THREE MARKS OF EXISTENCE

  Dukkha is the first of the three marks of existence. Dukkha is descriptive; it’s the diagnosis. The second two marks are the culprits; they are part of the disease. The culprit anicca is best translated as “impermanence.” Things are constantly changing.

  Sequestering

  * * *

  Do you need to sequester yourself away from the world—like a monk would—in order to realize enlightenment? The Buddha believed the Path was for everyone and no matter who you are you can realize nirvana. Sometimes the most challenging practice takes place in the outside world as you are forced to work harder when confronted with the many distractions of daily life. Enlightenment may be easier in a monastery, but is available anywhere.

  * * *

  Anatta is the next culprit, and while not difficult to translate it is difficult for the Western mind to grasp. Anatta means “no self” or “not self.” Anatta suggests that what appears to be “me” is not something solid, enduring, or stable. Whatever this “me” is, it is also subject to anicca. “Me” is always changing from one moment to the next and only gives the appearance of solidity. According to many religions, there is an everlasting identity known as the soul. The soul outlives the body and the mind, and it continues after earthly life is over. The Buddha rejects the idea of an eternal soul. Whatever this self appears to be, it is not solid and is always changing.

  Self is a process just like everything else. And furthermore, what you take to be yourself is a metaphor for identity in that this moment is based upon previous similar moments from the past or future similar moments from an anticipated future. This process of comparison gives rise to a solid self or an ego that is more like a thing than a process. In our earthly life, a lot of energy is invested into this ego self. It must be identified with and protected; self-esteem must be enhanced, and this is often done in obsessional ways.

  THE THREE FIRES (POISONS)

  The three fires are greed (craving, desire, thirst), hatred (aversion, aggression), and delusion (ignorance, confusion). These are also known as the three poisons. The unawakened mind is inextricably intertwined in these three poisons or fires. They arise out of misunderstanding the three
marks of dukkha, anicca, and anatta, and in turn, greed, hatred, and delusion are the primary cause of dukkha.

  Each of these concepts is intimately bound up with one another. It’s very likely that your day is filled with a variety of desires and aversions—things you want and don’t want. These can be material things, sensory things, or emotional experiences. It’s also very likely that you will attribute a sense of permanence to something that is not permanent and fall into the trap of the enduring self or ego (at least once!).

  The three fires are a ubiquitous threat, and the Buddha’s teaching offers antidotes for each of the fires. For greed he suggests generosity (dana). For hatred he suggests loving friendliness (metta) and compassion (karuna). For delusion he suggests the possibility of wisdom (prajna) waking up to a more accurate experience of reality.

  THE FIVE AGGREGATES

  In order to understand the nature of the self, the Buddha broke down the individual into five groups, or five aggregates of attachment, in his second sermon at the deer park.

  The five aggregates he named are as follows:

  1. The aggregate of matter (eye, ear, nose, throat, hand, etc.).

  2. The aggregate of feelings (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral).

  3. The aggregate of perception.

  4. The aggregate of volitions or mental formations.

  5. The aggregate of consciousness (response).

  Each aggregate is subject to change. Your body changes constantly. If you are older than forty years old you know this to be true. In fact, most cells of your body change every seven years, and every atom in your body changes over about once every year. Every atom! From a physical standpoint there is nothing in you today that was in you a year ago. So, who persists? Feelings and sensations change constantly as well. Your ideas change. For instance, maybe you used to believe in Santa Claus. Now you believe in credit cards and bank statements. Your volitions change as well—volitions can be thought of as your intentions or the choices you consciously make. It could be said that volitions are the basis for your actions.

  Volitional action changes as well. What you intend to do today will influence what you do tomorrow. And finally, you have consciousness (or response), which also changes constantly. You hear something with your ear and become conscious of the sound with your mind. You decide to act on the sound you hear. Your responses continually change.

  Since you cannot act on that which you do not experience (you do not act on a sound you do not hear), you’ll find that the fifth aggregate, consciousness, depends on all the other aggregates for its existence. The action or response you make based on the intention you had, which is based on your perception of your senses from your body, is solely dependent on each of the preceding phenomena. This is the Buddha’s teaching of dependent origination.

  The person you call “me” is made up of these five aggregates and nothing more. These aggregates are constantly changing. Therefore, the person you call “me” constantly changes as well. There is no fixed “me” or “I.” There is no permanent self, nothing to grab on to. The only way out of this endless cycle is to see that the perception of a fixed self is an illusion that you are attached to. Letting go of this attachment is to liberate yourself from suffering.

  These five aggregates together comprise dukkha, or suffering. If you think of a river, you will notice that the river is constantly changing. You cannot see one part of the river and stop to examine it and find it as fixed. Just like the river, you are ever changing.

  THE TRUTH OF THE CAUSE OF DUKKHA

  The Second Noble Truth

  In the Buddha’s words, “This, O Monks, is the Truth of the arising of Suffering. It is this thirst (tanha) or craving which gives rise to rebirth, which is bound up with the passionate delight and which seeks fresh pleasure now here and now there in the form of (1) thirst for sensual pleasure, (2) thirst for existence, and (3) thirst for non-existence.”

  The Second Noble Truth can be summed up in one word: desire, and it is known as the truth of arising (of suffering). Desire is like an overflowing river carrying you away to samsara (the endless cycle of becoming).

  * * *

  The teaching of Buddha

  is like a great cloud

  which with a single kind of rain

  waters all human flowers

  so that each can bear its fruit.

  —Lotus Sutra 5

  * * *

  In the Buddha’s Fire Sermon, he warned, “Monks, everything is burning. And what is burning? Monks, the eye is burning, visual consciousness is burning, visible forms are burning . . . Burning with what? Burning with the fire of desire, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion.” In other words, the three fires. The warning goes through the five senses and concludes with an invitation toward detachment as a path to liberation. You suffer because you reach out for certain things, push other things away, and generally neglect to appreciate that everything is changing constantly (anicca). The Buddha’s admonition should not be interpreted as a condemnation of the senses, but rather a call to examine your relationship to your senses. Are they pushing you around, leading you into trouble, becoming an excessive preoccupation? Here again, the call is to the Middle Way, neither indulging in nor avoiding sensory experiences.

  THE SOURCE OF DESIRE

  Desire comes from sensation, and sensation is caused by contact with something that gives rise to the sensation. The cycle of suffering and desire carry on infinitely. For instance, you feel a gnawing sense of lack (the sensation) and see an ad for a powerful new car (the contact that forces the sensation or in this case exaggerates the sensation) that you believe will change your life forever. Your self-esteem, the ad, and the possible purchase of the car are causal, relational, and interdependent (the purchase is based on the sight of the ad that you saw when you were feeling bad about yourself). As you probably already know, such retail therapy does not lead to enduring happiness.

  But the most direct cause of suffering is wanting something—desire. This desire is not limited to material objects, though they can certainly cause much suffering. It also extends to a wanting a serene disposition, your candidate of choice in office, a healthy life, a well-behaved dog, and attachment to ideals, ideas, and opinions.

  CLOUDING THE TRUTH

  The desire that you have for so many things keeps you from seeing things as they are. Everyone is addicted to some degree to thoughts of “me” and “mine.” All this craving leads to pain. Have you ever felt a sense of lack and tried to fill it with things and experiences? Has it helped? Probably not. This is the truth of the arising of suffering. Desire keeps you trapped going nowhere.

  THE TRUTH OF THE CESSATION OF DUKKHA

  The Third Noble Truth

  The Buddha said, “This, O Monks, is the Truth of Cessation of Suffering (nirodha). It is the utter cessation of that craving (tanha), the withdrawal from it, the renouncing of it, the rejection of it, liberation from it, nonattachment to it.” To reach that state described by the Buddha is to attain nirvana.

  Nirvana literally means “cooling by blowing” or “blowing out.” What blows out? Adherence to the three fires (kleshas): greed, hatred, and delusion. It’s like putting that fire out that the Buddha spoke of in the Second Noble Truth. This is the prognosis. The misery can stop if life can be approached with wisdom (prajna) instead of desire. It’s hard to get to this realization without some meditation. By doing so, you examine the moment-by-moment changing nature of experience. When you do this, you see into the three marks and are no longer fooled by them. These marks, again, are dukkha (suffering; pervasive dissatisfaction), anicca (impermanence), and anatta (no self).

  According to Buddhist scholar Todd Lewis, nirvana can be understood as “an impersonal state that transcends individuality” and as “eternal, tranquil, pure, and deathless . . . and the only permanent reality in the cosmos.” Nagarjuna, the second-century philosopher (and second-most influential person in the history of Buddhism after the Buddha) adds to the defin
itional mystique of nirvana when he said, “There is not the merest difference between samsara and nirvana.” What he means by this is that nirvana is beyond all conditions, beyond all categories, and cannot be grasped by the conceptual mind. It goes beyond intellect and must be experienced for yourself to be understood.

  The Buddha advocated the following Seven Factors of Awakening:

  1. Mindfulness

  2. Discernment (that is, knowing whether an action will be skillful or unskillful)

  3. Persistence

  4. Rapture

  5. Serenity

  6. Concentration

  7. Equanimity

  Advanced meditation provides the opportunity to burn up past karma or the conditionings that you have experienced. It is akin to untying knots that have accumulated in your mind over a lifetime of experiences. Each knot that is untied, each conditioning that is deconditioned, every bit of karma that is burned up, moves you closer to awakening. Taken to its ultimate realization you will reach samyak-sambodhi—perfect and complete enlightenment. Language begins to fail in its ability to capture this experience, so you’ll have to sit down and experience it for yourself. “Bliss” is one of the words that approximates the experience.

  THE TRUTH OF THE PATH THAT LEADS TO THE CESSATION OF DUKKHA