Buddhist Philosophy

This weekend, I did a retreat at the meditation center with twelve other people. Our schedule was wake up, meditate, do yoga, eat, have a “class” with Yeshe (the monk here), eat, have another class, do yoga, eat, meditate and then be silent until after the next mornings meditation. It was an incredible experience and I learned so much. My favorite part was the class. We mostly talked about Buddhist philosophy. The way Yeshi explained everything was amazing and so eye opening. It was almost as if oh of course that’s the way things are! That’s not to say I didn’t struggle, or am not still going down to his room and pestering him with questions. I wrote an essay on what I learned and am learning. I apologize for the length, kinda hard to keep philosophy short but don’t give up! There’s some valuable stuff in there I promise. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I may be able to answer, or I may just have to go down and ask Yeshi myself. Namaste!

Buddhism can be determined as many things. Buddhism is a religion because enlightenment is a way of salvation. Buddhism is a philosophy because there is no God or creator. Buddhism is a science because its theories have been tested by meditation practitioners and proven to be true. It may be all these things, but the simple answer is it is the study of self and path to happiness.

            2,500 years ago, a young boy was born a prince and named Siddhartha. A prophecy was made that if Siddhartha saw the suffering of world he would become a great teacher, but if he did not, he would become a great ruler. His father, being the king of a small land (it is now what makes up part of Nepal), wanted his son to achieve greatness and kept him locked inside the palace. Siddhartha lived an incredibly sheltered life and had never been outside the palace walls until one day. He and his driver rode through the city and for the first time the prince saw suffering. He saw a sick man and asked his driver, Chandaka: “Channa, what is this?” The driver responded, “This is a sick man.” He again questioned the Channa, “What is a sick man?” To which Channa responded, “A man that is dying.” Once again, he questioned, “Does this happen to everyone?” “Yes.” Again, “Will this happen to me?” “Yes.” These things may seem obvious to us, but Siddhartha was in shock. The next time he went out, he saw an old man. Again, he asked Channa the same four questions. “What is this?” “This is an old man.” “What is an old man?” “A man that is aging.” “Does this happen to everyone?” “Yes.” “Will this happen to me?” “Yes.” The next time, he saw a corpse. “What is that?” “That is a dead man.” “What is a dead man?” “A man with only a body left.” “Does this happen to everyone?” “Yes.” “Will this happen to me?” “Yes.” The fourth time he went into the city, he saw a holy man. “What is this?” “A renunciated man.” “What is that?” “A man who has given up everything.” “Does this happen to everyone?” This time, Chandaka says, “No.” “Will this happen to me?” “No, you are a prince.” This was the first time the prince had ever seen or thought of an alternative life. After that day he decided to find the meaning of these things and fix them. He spent many years in meditation and rid himself of all attachments. After he discovered what is now referred to as Buddhism. He was never again called Siddhartha but gained the title of Buddha, meaning the awakened one, and he began to teach, fulfilling the first prophecy.

            One of the concepts the Buddha came to realize was that we all suffer. Through his meditation, he found that the root of suffering is ignorance. Ignorance can be defined as a false impression of something that cannot be. There are infinite ways we suffer, but the way that seems to be most common and pervasive is the suffering of change. This does not mean that change creates suffering, but that we are either in a constant search of it, or terrified of it. In the first case, we are never satisfied, whether we should be or not. This is because we always want what we believe will relieve our suffering from the absence of this thing, and it could at first but it never lasts. For example, you have just been hiking for hours and hours in the unbearable heat, what do you want? Water. You take out your bottle and take a sip and it’s delicious. Completely thirst quenching. You finish half the bottle and start to realize the chlorine taste from the chemicals, or that it’s lukewarm from the sun. You finish it anyways and reach for a second. After draining the second bottle, you feel sick and bloated with water. The water was always the same, but you no longer want the water because you’ve had more than enough and it actually ended up causing you to suffer.

Anything could be pleasurable at first but at some point we will no longer want it. There is nothing we could do over and over again without suffering besides breathing and things we do out of complete love and compassion (example, a mother changing a babies diaper). This is why the Buddha believed that the ultimate suffering is life itself. This does not mean that life has to be painful, but we make it so. In the other way we suffer from change is denial of suffering. This creates a false sense of happiness. The first step to fixing this is to diagnose our suffering, to be honest with ourselves and say, “I am in pain”. It is a lot harder than many think but once we have achieved this we can change. Through this process, we have stepped onto the path of wisdom. It is the only advantage of suffering, but how many wise people do we know? This is because people are so attached to this false sense of happiness that they deny themselves the ability to realize suffering and therefore change.

Wisdom is the insight into the way you and things exist in the world and is attained through a realization or a understanding deep enough to change the way you act in the world. It is the antidote to ignorance and suffering. When wisdom is combined with compassion, it is the antidote to others suffering. The relief of this suffering is called peace. Another part of finding peace is to separate yourself from negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are addictive, toxic and contagious and will make you suffer no matter what you’re doing. You could be doing your most favorite thing in the world and be completely miserable because of how you are thinking. Your thoughts change your mind. If this were easy, we would be completely content with only our most basic needs, but since our sense of happiness is so deformed by our attachments to possessions, other people, ourselves, the world, etc. it is near impossible. We are also enslaved to our perspective. If you live a wealthy life and have a lot of possessions, it is a lot harder to be happy with less. If you live a life surrounded by others, it is a lot harder to be happy alone. It goes back to this warped idea that change is bad. So is lasting happiness even possible? Yes, by filling yourself with positive thoughts and energy. Your thoughts change your mind.

            Because Buddhists believe in impermanence, they believe that there is no fixed essence or self. All Buddhists teachings lead to emptiness. Emptiness does not mean nothingness, but the “emptiness of inherent, concrete existence”. The goal of emptiness is the total eradication of this false way of seeing things from our mind. This is what leads to enlightenment. To Buddhists, the soul is like an erroneous reading of the subtle consciousness that has been created over time to answer the question, who am I? Again we have to remember that emptiness does not mean nothingness. The Buddhists version of the soul can be called the subtle consciousness. The only differences are that a God did not create it and it is not permanent. A God could not have created it because there was no ultimate beginning and it cannot be permanent because we are always changing as people. This does not mean we do not exist. As Decares once said, “I think, therefore I am.” We function because we exist.

Here is the hard part. Where is the chair? It seems ridiculous to ask but try pointing to a chair. You might have pointed to the top or one of the legs, but that’s not a chair. Just the leg does not function as a chair. We have given the chair an essence, a being. We must realize that nothing is what it seems to be. Everything is made up of and dependent on an infinite number other things and is still constantly changing. We define and define, saying “this is a chair”, “this is a leg” and “this is a tree”, these labels we have attached deny the inevitable and constant change that is happening everywhere.

Here is the scary part. The ego is a mental construct created by our minds to create security for our egos. We have to remember that even though it was created by our minds, it isn’t permanent either, but do exist. We sub-consciously created the soul because we want to believe there is something permanent for us to cling to, to define our existence. It is created out of ignorance and changes the way we act in the world. Everything we do is to satisfy this ego or uphold our self-image. Even things we think we are doing out of love are for ourselves. If someone says, “I love you”, how would they feel if the person they were speaking to didn’t say anything back? We will forever live to serve ourselves until we can transform our minds and get rid of these false definitions. All of this does not mean there is no “I” in the question “who am I?” but it is not this false and permanent sense of self we have created. We must realize that everything is always changing and the way we have perceived or defined things is not the way they have been, are or will be. After we understand this, we understand the truth of life. When we are empty of all false notions and attachments, there is nothing left but what must be true. This is when you can do things because they are right and not because they serve your egotistical sense of self. This is where true compassion is created and is one of the ultimate quality someone can achieve. This is when we realize that we are not all one but all connected. This is when we can end ignorance and therefore end suffering.