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? 💩

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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