Aboveboard: The Four Noble Confusion

Last time, I began to talk about my reaction to the audio book, Beginner’s Guide to Buddhism, by Jack Kornfield. I was very attracted by the idea that there could be a way out of the terrible suffering caused by my Fibromyalgia, but as yet was not clear how this could possibly be so, and I wasn’t so sure about Buddhism either. The four noble truths outlined by Kornfield—suffering/dissatisfaction, the causes of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path out of suffering—seemed straightforward enough, but the details were less so.

I thought the truth of suffering was fairly obvious, given my situation, but the causes he described were not. I really wanted to know the causes, but “grasping and clinging!?” I hadn’t expected that. He went on to say that these “[lead] to greed, hatred and delusion, which creates suffering.”

At this point he completely lost me, because I thought my pain was my problem, but then he picked it up again, with the very true and relevant fact that we always want things to be a certain way but inevitably find that they are not, and then we suffer.

When it came to the truth of the cessation of suffering—Nirvana or liberation—of course, that sounded good—though I knew nothing about it. He said this happens when we give up “the body of fear;” when we “quiet the mind and open the heart,” then we can achieve liberation. But the “how” was still missing! How do we make this happen?

He said that the path leading to the cessation of suffering is “the middle path, or the eight-fold path, . . . when we live in the reality of the present . . . [and] respond with compassion rather than react with greed, hatred or delusion.”

He listed the 8 parts of the path and briefly described them. While this was interesting it didn’t make much of an impression on me. More importantly, as far as I was concerned, was the idea that you can learn to be here and know you’re here without suffering from or getting caught up in what’s happening, but instead to respond to this present wisely and compassionately. The moral tone of some aspects of the path did not appeal to me, as I wasn’t feeling very well disposed towards anyone else, having been rejected and put down because of this invisible burden I was carrying around.

I was ready for some serious relief, but how could I get it?

Next time: Enough about theories, what about specific methods!?

About-turn: Buddha’s Story

As explained earlier, the searing pain of Fibromyalgia motivated me to seek answers. Having already exhausted the affordable medical and naturopathic options, I immersed myself in an imaginary realm of my own creation. In the process of attempting to manufacture this escape route I decided I had to create a religion for one of my characters. Searching the Internet for ideas brought me back to Buddhism. Last time, I concluded that while this expedition had revitalized my fiction, it had not improved my reality. Then, I stumbled across an audio book by Jack Kornfield called, Beginner’s Guide to Buddhism (Louisville, USA: Sounds True 2002).

In this work, Kornfield explains that he is going to describe the “essential practices and teachings offered by the Buddha,” which originated 2500 years ago. “The word Buddha means one who has awakened . . . to their true nature and sees it in all beings,” he says, adding “we too can discover this in ourselves and the teachings of Buddhism are a way to fulfill that reality.”

‘Okay, Jack, but how in the world is this going to help me?’ I silently complained to thin air.

But by this time I was so desperate and I felt so ill that I lacked the energy to get up and turn the flipping thing off, so I continued listening anyway.

Now I learned that prior to his awakening, the Buddha lived a sheltered privileged life, but one day his view of the world was shattered by his observation of the prevalence of suffering, in the form of sickness, aging, and death. At the same time, he discovered that others too were already seeking answers to the problem of how to respond to these unpleasant realities. At once, he resolved to join in this quest. After years of searching and struggle he finally found a way to free himself from suffering. Out of compassion he committed himself to teach others the path to liberation.

This bit caught my attention, to say the least, but then he broke off from the tale and explained how he became a monk in a monastery, where he learned the practices of this path.

Then, returning to the thread, he identified the central core of the teachings as "The Four Noble Truths." These are: the truth of suffering or dissatisfaction (which I thought I already knew all too well), the causes of suffering (which I had concluded were pain and more pain), the cessation of suffering (I wish!!!), and the path to this end (I can hardly wait!!!).

Next time: okay, I’ve heard the truths, but I’m still suffering. Now what?

Abounding: Sampling Errors

Last time, I wrote about how the suffering of Fibromyalgia drove me to seek solace in the fantasy life from which much of my creative writing emerged. I then described how this strategy produced a fictional character for whom I needed to invent a religion. Lastly, I outlined how my internet research on the topic re-ignited my interest in Buddhism, and summarized a few of my past experiences with meditation based on the work of John Kabat-Zinn.

In the course of my Internet searching, I came across a confusing and often conflicting assortment of web pages, books and audio books. There is a wealth of information out there, but what good does that do when it’s so disordered?

Eventually, I began to notice certain patterns, however. For example, Ajahn Brahm has a lot of material out there. A good place to start is the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. There’s a lot to see on this site, but what grabbed me first was his theme of happiness. For a while, I was determined (foolishly, no doubt) that all I had to do was decide to be happy and all would be well. For a few days I was deliriously happy and then I crashed again, as I usually do when I get a hold of one of these popular ideas.

Oh yes, the self-help book/video/audio madness is still going strong. We may feel ill but the get-well-quick-business is very healthy. I don’t think Ajahn Brahm is part of that show, but his ‘advertising campaign,’ style sometimes strikes me as a little over-the-top, and there are hints of a hardness behind it that doesn’t appeal to me. Nevertheless, I am sure that some of you will find some comfort and wisdom in his message, as well as humour.

The Vietnamese, Zen Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, is quite popular too, though I had trouble understanding his perspective. After listening to, The Heart of Understanding (Berkeley, USA: Parallax Press, 1987), in the notes I filed with it, I wrote, “Most of this is sheer fantasy, containing many contradictions, but he spins a good tale.” I later discovered that a lot of what I had found concerned a difficult Mahayana Buddhist concept called “emptiness.” It made no sense to me then; hence I moved on.

The Teaching Company has an entertaining course on Buddhism, taught by David Malcolm Eckel, for those seeking a general understanding of Buddhism, and it certainly helped with my fictional religion construction. I, on the other hand, had already embarked on a journey of another kind, entered a completely different boat, or plane or bus from the one I thought I had intended to, but had not yet noticed.

Next time, everything is turned upside-down again, but I still don’t catch on.