Suffering

            "Sometimes you have to suffer just to realize that suffering isn't necessary."

            Many non-Buddhists (and Buddhists) think that Buddhism is all about suffering. It is not. It is about finding the way out of suffering. This is the Third Noble Truth that the Buddha taught around the year 531 B.C. It is as relevant today, (yes, even in our changing technological world, perhaps more so) as it was centuries ago.

 Let's take a look at these truths that the Buddha taught.

The Four Noble Truths are

• 1) There exists suffering (dukka).
• 2) The origin of suffering is caused by craving (trishna) or grasping (upadana).
• 3) There exists a cessation of suffering.
• 4) The Noble Eightfold path is the way out of suffering

                "Now this, monks, is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation with what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is sufferings; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering."

            The First Noble Truth is that with all of life comes suffering. With birth, illness, old age and death carries with them pain, and our attachment to them causes suffering. This first Noble Truth taken in itself seems pessimistic. It "seems" as if we are "fated" to suffer. Which is why the Buddha taught the other Noble truths, which modify and mitigate the First Noble Truth.

            "Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving that leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination."

            The Second Noble Truth is that craving, and grasping cause suffering. Also our aversion to pain causes suffering. Pain does not cause suffering. Our aversion to it does [see suffering pt 2].

                "Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: it is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, nonattachment."

            This Third Noble Truth is that there exists a way out of suffering. We have all found this truth in our lives at one time or another. We have all found an answer that we were looking for, or relinquished our craving. With that answer or relinquishment, the suffering, caused by grasping and too much attachment, ceased. Unfortunately, the ego, which likes to wrap its self-identity in objects of consciousness, tends to confuse its identity with those objects of consciousness. One of the ways out of suffering is in the Noble Eightfold Path.

                "Now this monks is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: it is this Noble Eightfold Path; that is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration."       

            Because we seem to suffer in life, we also need a path out of suffering. This isn't a "do it once" and then I won't suffer anymore type of deal. Rather it is a continuous pathway. Buddhism is just one of many paths that can help us identify our attachments and to not suffer less. If your path is not Buddhist though, your path out of suffering will still follow along the lines of the Noble Eightfold Path; Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.  

            People may initially feel overwhelmed with this, but the pathway gets easier and easier the more you are able to do it. "Right" View isn't a bunch of moral precepts you have to follow. It means rather seeing the ego, and going the other way! "Right" in this way simply means the way that leads out of suffering! It becomes the only "Right" way to go! It also isn't about those things that "seem" to lead us out of suffering, but actually only delay suffering and cause greater suffering later on, both to yourself and others.

            The less you wrap your identity in objects of consciousness, the less you grasp, and become more identified with pure consciousness (the Witness, Spirit), the less you will suffer, and the happier you will be. There always exists a way out of suffering, because perception can always change.

            You cannot suffer from suffering itself. It always has to be about something. What do you suffer from? Suffering is our mental aversion or self-contraction to something, and happens in our minds, so it is there that we have to focus on by turning inward. Don't fight painful feelings, only allow them into your awareness, objectively looking at them (becoming the Witness to them) and learning from them. All negative emotions (guilt, anger, fear, misery, etc) can be handled, mitigated and transformed [see blogs]. It has happened many, many times before. Sometimes you just need more information. You can bet that whatever problems there are, there have been people who have gone through the same thing and have found solutions to it. And sometimes you just need compassion for yourself...

          By experientially learning and walking the path, you will see that there does exist a pathway out of suffering; a way to identify the patterns and not engage them, which leads to the cessation of suffering.

:)