Life isn't just suffering (Ven. Thanissaro)

American Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chodron

Tan Geoff tells this story about the first noble truth: "He showed me the brightness of the world."

That's how my teacher, Ajahn Fuang, once characterized his gratitude to his teacher, Ajahn Lee [Dhammadaro, student of Ajahn Mun]. His words took me by surprise.

I had only recently come to study with him, still fresh from a school where I had learned that serious Buddhists took a negative, pessimistic view of the world.

Yet, here was a monk who had given his life over to the practice of the Buddha's Teachings speaking of the world's brightness.

Of course, by "brightness" he wasn't referring to the joys of the food, arts, travel, sports, family life, or any of the other sections of the Sunday paper.

The happiest couple in the world...and the most miserable. I want a divorce! - Oh yeah? 💩

.

He was talking about a better and deeper happiness that comes from within us. As I came to know him, I gained a sense of how deeply happy he was.

He may have been skeptical about human pretenses, but I'd never describe him as pessimistic or negative. "Realistic" would be closer to the truth.

Yet, for a long time I couldn't shake the sense of paradox I felt. How could the pessimism of translated Buddhist texts find embodiment in such a solidly happy person?

Only when I began to look directly at the early sutras did I realize that what I thought was paradox was actually irony.

Ironically, Buddhism, which gives such a positive view of a human being's potential for finding true happiness, could be branded in the West as "negative and pessimistic."

Ouch.  Ouch. Ouch.

There's a rumor that, "'Life is suffering' is Buddhism's first principle," the first noble truth, according to the Buddha. It's a rumor with good credentials. It is spread by well-intentioned and well-respected academics and Dharma teachers alike. But it is a rumor, nonetheless.

The truth about the Four Noble Truths is far more interesting.

The Buddha taught four ennobling (enlightening) truths — not one — about life:

1. There is suffering (disappointment, pain, stress)
2. There is a cause of suffering
3. There is an end of suffering
4. There is a path of practice that puts an end to suffering.

These truths, taken as a whole, are very optimistic. They're practical. It's a problem-solving approach — the way a doctor approaches an illness (pain), a mechanic a faltering engine. Identify the problem and look for its cause. Then put an end to the problem by eliminating its cause.

What's special about the Buddha's approach is that the problem he approaches is the whole of human (and deva) suffering. The solution he offers is something humans (and devas) can do for themselves.

Just as a physician with a surefire cure for measles is no longer afraid of measles, the Buddha isn't afraid of any aspect of suffering. Having experienced pleasure and happiness free of all conditions, he's intrepid.

He's not afraid to point out suffering and disappointment inherent in places where most of us would rather not see them — the conditioned pleasures we cling to.

He teaches beings not to deny suffering and disappointment, not to run away, but to stand still and face them, to examine them carefully. That way — by understanding them — we can discern a cause and put an end to it, a total end. How confident can one get? More

• Ajahn Geoff (aka Geoffrey DeGraff, Thanissaro Bhikkhu), "Life Isn't Just Suffering," accesstoinsight.org; edited by Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

What about good deeds, merit? Boring!

Tan Jeff (Abbot Thanissaro, Wat Metta); Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Charitable giving is one way of letting go.

Of all the concepts central to Buddhism, merit (punna) is one of the least known and least appreciated in the West.

This is perhaps because the pursuit of merit seems to be a lowly practice, focused on getting, whereas higher Buddhist practice focuses on letting go.

Because we in the West often feel pressed for time, we don’t want to waste it on lowly practices, and instead want to go straight to higher levels.

Yet, the Buddha repeatedly warns that the higher levels cannot be practiced in a stable manner unless they develop on a strong foundation...

Karma: Would cash help conventional things?

In the course of developing a wise sense of self in the pursuit of merit, one is already learning how to let go of unwise ways of “selfing”* as one learns to overcome stinginess, apathy, and hard-heartedness through the development of giving, virtue, and good will.

• [*Though in an ultimate sense, “self” is illusory and unreal, in conventional terms it is very real, and we need to get a grip before we can hope to successfully embark on the Enlightened One's path to freedom.]

The teachings on [the impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal nature of all things, referred to as the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence known as:]

1. anicca
2. dukkha
3. anatta

simply carry this same process of “de-selfing” for the sake of an even truer happiness to a higher pitch.

Trip to Deer Park Monastery (video)

Ananda, Dhr. Seven, Ellie Askew, Jen B. (Dharma Meditation Initiative); Conscious Living TV; Crystal Q. (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

A welcoming sign at Deer Park Monastery near hidden mountain.

Dharma Meditation Initiative took a SoCal "Buddhist Circuit" trip that started with the oldest Sri Lankan temple, the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara in Pasadena, then over to the new Thabarwa Nature Meditation Center in Baldwin Park, the enormous Burmese Progressive Buddhist Association in Azusa, next to the garden paradise Dhammakaya International Meditation Center, the largest Thai temple around, Wat Padhammachart in La Puente (watpala1.org), then down the 15 Freeway to Thich Nhat Hanh's Deer Park Monastery in Escondido (Spanish for "hidden") for its occasional "Day of Mindfulness" (as the video shows) before returning north with a layover at Wat Metta, the American "avocado grove monastery" of Thai origin, to catch the daily "Q & A" with Ajahn Thanissaro (Mr. Geoff DeGraff). It was a brief but insightful closer to a day of mindfulness.

Conscious

VIDEO: "A Visit to Thich Nhat Hanh's Deer Park Monastery" (Summer 2017): Travel with Conscious Living TV to Deer Park Monastery, a sustainable Buddhist monastery started by Thich Nhat Hanh in the hills of Escondido, California and learn their simple daily meditation practice and how they are living off the grid with solar power and bio-diesel.

No Strings Attached: Giving

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Thanissaro (accesstoinsight.org)

Golden Buddha as the newborn Prince Siddhartha showered with gifts (Wpgaurav/flickr).

.

No Strings Attached: The Buddha's Culture of Generosity

Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff)

Ven. Thanissaro (DeGraff)

“How can I ever repay you for your teaching?” Good meditation teachers often hear this question from their students, and the best answer I know for it is one that my teacher, Ajahn Fuang, gave every time: “By being intent on practicing.”

Each time he gave this answer, I was struck by how noble and gracious it was. And it wasn't just a formality. He never tried to find opportunities to pressure his students for donations. Even when our Thai forest monastery was poor, he never acted poor, never tried to take advantage of their gratitude and trust.

 

This was a refreshing change from some of my previous experiences with run-of-the-mill village and city monks who were quick to drop hints (which is a violation of the Buddhist Monastic Code) about their need for donations from even stray or casual visitors.

 

Eventually I learned that Ajahn Fuang's behavior is common throughout the Thai Forest Tradition. It's based on a passage in the Pali canon where the Buddha on the verge of final nirvana states that the highest homage to him is not material homage, but the homage of practicing the Dharma in accordance with the Dharma.

In other words, the best way to repay a teacher is to take the Dharma to heart and to practice it in a way that fulfills that teacher's compassionate purpose in teaching it. I am proud to be part of a tradition where the inner wealth of this noble idea is actually lived out -- where, as Ajahn Fuang often put it, we are not reduced to hirelings. Instead, the act of teaching the Dharma is purely a gift.

U.S. strings

Ven. Thanissaro is a prolific translator.

So I was saddened when, on my return to America, I had my first encounters with the "dana talk": the talk on donating and generosity that often comes at the end of a meditation retreat.

The context of the talk -- the content making clear that it's not a disinterested exercise -- is often aimed at generating gifts for the teacher or the organization sponsoring the retreat. And it places the burden of responsibility on the retreatants to ensure that future retreats can occur.

 

The language of the talk is often smooth and encouraging, but when contrasted with Ajahn Fuang's answer, I found the sheer fact of the talk ill-mannered and demeaning.

 

If the organizers and teachers really trusted the retreatants' good-heartedness, they would not be giving "the talk" at all. To make matters worse, the typical dana talk -- along with its companion, the meditation-center fundraising letter -- often cites the example of how monastics (monks and nuns) are supported in Asia as justification for how dana is treated here in the West. But they're taking as their example the worst of the monks rather than the best. More

• Ajahn Fuang Jotiko
• A Person of Integrity's Gifts
• Aliens killing humans? (Nat'l Geo) 

Beyond Coping: The Buddha on Illness

Wisdom Quarterly; Abbot Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff, accesstoinsight.org), "Study Guide"

The Buddha ministers to the needs of a very sick monk the other monks were neglecting

 

Chinese Oroqen shaman

An anthropologist once questioned an Eskimo shaman about his tribe's belief system. After putting up with the anthropologist's questions for a while, the shaman finally told him: "Look. We don't believe. We fear."

 

In a similar way, Buddhism starts not with a belief, but with a fear of very present dangers. As the Buddha himself reported, his initial impetus for leaving home and seeking awakening was his comprehension of the great dangers that inevitably follow upon birth: aging, illness, death, and separation.

 

The awakening he sought was one that would lead him to a happiness not subject to these things. After finding that happiness, attempting to show others how to find it for themselves, he frequently referred to these themes as useful objects for contemplation.

Because of this, his teaching has often been labelled "pessimistic." But his emphasis is actually like a doctor who focuses on symptoms and causes of disease to bring about a cure. The Buddha fearlessly dwells on these unpleasant topics because the awakening (enlightenment) he teaches brings about total release from them.

 

This study guide provides an introduction to the Buddha's teachings on them. The passages included here -- all from the Pali canon -- are arranged in FIVE SECTIONS:

1. The first section (The Buddha as Doctor, the Dharma as Medicine) presents medical metaphors for the teaching (Dharma or Dhamma), showing how the Buddha was like a doctor and how his teaching is like a course of therapy offering a cure for the great dangers in life.

 

2. The second section (The Doctor's Diagnosis) diagnoses the problems of aging, illness, death, and separation, touching briefly on the Buddha's central teaching, the four noble truths.

3. The third section (Heedfulness) contains passages that use these themes as reminders for diligence in the practice. The central passage is a set of five recollections, in which these recollections forms a background for a fifth recollection: the power of one's actions (karma or kamma) to shape one's experience. In other words, the first four recollections present the dangers of life, whereas the fifth indicates the way to overcome the dangers by developing skill in one's own thoughts, words, and deeds.

4. The fourth section (Advice) contains passages that give specific advice on how to deal with these themes. The Buddha's teachings on karma provide an important underpinning for how problems of pain and illness are approached. Given the fact that the experience of the present moment is shaped by past and present intentions, it is possible that -- if an illness is the result of present intentions -- a change of mind can effect a cure. If the illness is the result of past intentions, a change of mind may not cure it but can protect the mind from being adversely affected by it. Some passages focus on how practicing the Dharma can cure an illness, whereas others focus on how the Dharma can ensure that, even if a person may die from an illness, the illness will make no inroads on the mind.

5. The fifth section (Teaching by Example) gives examples of how the Buddha and his disciples skillfully negotiated the problems of aging, illness, death, and separation.

Skateboarding Buddhist Monk? (video)

Chinese monk skateboarding on temple grounds; monk doll below (sodahead.com).

Skateboarding Monk: Contradiction or Product of Modern Age?

Text by Deborah Jiang Stein (Huffington Post, Dec. 28, 2009)
A monk [not the first] skateboards inside an historic temple and causes controversy in China. In Sichuan province near the top of Mount Emei, the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China, stands the Dafu Temple. Here, a monk on a skateboard has stirred controversy about whether his skateboarding is appropriate behavior for a monk. Many are asking: Is this the way monks ought to live? Clad in his gray cloak and true skater form, the monk twists his legs, leans forward, and skateboards in the temple. More>>

Monks on Skateboards Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Is skateboarding appropriate behavior within the monastic code of conduct (Vinaya)? Technically, this behavior is fine in private. But in terms of decorum, it is pushing the envelope. On one occasion monks were bathing in a reservoir and splashed each other playfully. This innocent act offended a prominent disciple of the Buddha, who complained to him about how this might look to others. The Buddha then established a monastic rule barring playing in water.

• PHOTO: Tibetan Buddhist monk tries skateboarding at Arou Temple in Arou, Qinghai Province, China (Rob Thompson).

One could easily imagine that the Buddha would also deem recreational skateboarding out of bounds. But as it did not come up, he did not. It is therefore left to the abbot or the local Sangha to decide. Until such a decision is handed down, the bhikshus might consider a stint on the Warped Tour. After all, if that's the worst thing they're doing, we should rejoice.

Skateboarding has already met Christian "spirituality" in Australia and elsewhere. We know firsthand that Ven. Thanissaro (Wat Metta, California), who is known as "Tan Jeff," hikes, camps, and photographs every chance he gets -- and he's the author of the English version of the Buddhist monastic code.

• Online Buddhist Monastic Code (Ven. Thanissaro)

Highly Recommended

Some Interesting Websites

By the Bhavana Society, USA

• Access to Insight
  www.accesstoinsight.org This is probably the single largest collection of readings on Theravada Buddhism on the Internet. It contains hundreds of scriptures and Dharma books as well as an extensive links page to other sites.
• Sadhu!
  www.dhamma.ru/sadhu A directory of links related to Theravada Buddhism.
• Audio Dharma
  www.audiodharma.org A collection of audio recordings from Theravada/vipassana and Zen tradition
• Journal of Buddhist Ethics
  jbe.gold.ac.uk Offers free download of the Sri Lankan version of Pali Canon and post-canonical writings (in Pali). Articles and book reviews are targeted to college students and their professors.
• Abhayagiri
  abhayagiri.org Theravada Buddhist monastery in the tradition of Ajahn Cha. Abbots Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro
• Metta Forest Monastery
  www.mettaforest.org Theravada Buddhist monastery. Abbot, Ajahn Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
• Birken Forest Monastery
  www.birken.ca Theravada Buddhist monastery in the tradition of Ajahn Cha. Abbot, Ajahn Sona
• Bodhi Monastery
  www.bodhimonastery.net A non-sectarian Buddhist monastery. There is a large collection of sutta study classes by Bhikkhu Bodhi available for download from the site.
• Insight Meditation Society and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
  dharma.org Offers meditation retreats and study workshops.

The Bhavana Society is open to the public as a lay meditation center, Buddhist monastery, and nunnery (offering ordination) located in the woods in West Virginia, USA. Bhante G, a renowned instructor, is the center's abbot.