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The Light of Buddha
Buddha simply claimed that he taught about suffering, its origin, and its cessation. “That’s all I teach,” he said. He taught that all life is suffering, and the only antidote to that suffering is infinite compassion, or enlightenment. The only way out of our suffering is to identify with the suffering of others; the only meaning to our suffering is that it might expand our hearts so we can.
Buddha was born Prince Siddhartha, the son of a king told by a renowned seer upon the birth of his son that the child would grow up to be either a great conquering king or a great holy man. The king was adamant that Siddhartha should grow up to follow in his royal footsteps, so he sought to keep his son shielded from religious teachings throughout his life. He enclosed his palace compound within thick walls, allowing only pleasurable things to exist there in the hopes that a luxurious lifestyle would keep suffering from Siddhartha’s sight. From educational opportunities to sensual pleasures, over the years Siddhartha was exposed to everything his father believed would make him happy and keep him tied to the royal household. He reached the age of twenty-nine with little or no exposure to life outside this opulent environment.
Despite the abundance of worldly pleasures he experienced throughout his life, a restlessness began to grow inside Siddhartha’s heart. He felt something was missing in his life though he had no idea what it was. He knew there was more to human existence than the material grandeur he had been raised with . . . something he hadn’t seen but that he needed to see. One day he set out on a series of rides throughout the countryside, seeking to discover the world that lay beyond the walls of his father’s house.
On his rides, he saw an aged man, a sick man, and a corpse. For the first time in his life, Siddhartha saw the realities of aging, disease, and death. He was profoundly changed. Returning to the palace, he saw things there in a different light. He realized that even the musicians and dancers, all the objects of luxury we use to keep suffering at bay, in time deteriorate and turn back into dust. It is a mere illusion to think otherwise. Even the son who had been born in his absence brought him no joy; in fact, his very name, Rahula, means “fetter.” Siddhartha was now seeking something beyond what his former life could give him.
During his rides Siddhartha had seen a wandering ascetic—someone who had renounced the world and sought release from the fear of death and suffering—and he chose this as his path. He stole away from the palace, shaved his head, and put on a beggar’s robe. Thus he began his search for enlightenment.
Siddhartha’s path, like all of our paths, was not easy. The divestment of his illusions took him through various forms of suffering, as he was forced to face down the demons of the delusional self. The false gods of the ego mind—embodied in Buddhism as the demon Mara, which means “destruction”—sought to fool, betray, and ensnare him. As they do us all.
Yet Siddhartha cleaved to his recognition of the eternal that lies beyond the temporary, the clarity beyond passion, and the truth beyond illusion. The great mental battle between the forces of truth and falsehood that raged within him is revered as his approach to enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree. Though Mara mentally tortured him, the earth itself promised to bear him witness, and Mara was ultimately defeated. Siddhartha’s eyes were opened to the true nature of reality, and he became the Buddha, or Awakened One.
Buddha saw, experienced, and transcended suffering. He saw attachment to the world as the source of our suffering and infinite compassion as the key to transcending it. The teachings that emerged from this realization are a path by which billions of souls have pierced the veil of illusion that blinds us to ultimate reality, for in remembering his journey we are awakened to our own. Buddha’s enlightenment is a door through which we can transcend our own suffering as he transcended his. The world is an immeasurably more beautiful place for all the light he brought into the world.
THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS AND THE EIGHTFOLD PATH
The spiritual journey is a gentle reinterpretation of the world, the replacement of an increasingly outdated internal operating system with the far more sophisticated patterns of enlightened thinking. All suffering emanates from the activity of the mind when it is attached to the illusions of the world; only infinite compassion releases us from these attachments and delivers us to inner peace.
Buddhism, like A Course in Miracles, teaches that the three-dimensional world is a vast illusion. The mortal world is but a veil in front of a truer truth; the veil is lifted not when we look away from it, but when we look through it with different eyes.
The Buddhist Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are guides to our deliverance from suffering, as we embrace the ways of enlightenment, or right-mindedness. “Embracing the ways of enlightenment” and “praying for a miracle” are fundamentally the same thing.
I have vivid memories of two particular instances when, feeling very down, I prayed for a miracle. Both times, literally within minutes of my saying the prayer, something happened that changed my mood. Both times I was asked, while in the midst of my pain, to do something for someone else. At first I thought, “Oh God, I can’t do this,” then realized that the request was in fact the answer to my prayer! The opportunity to do something for someone else was an opportunity to get over myself. And it worked. Any thought that posits our own perceived needs as more important than those of others is a thought of separation, and will not lead to happiness. A serious spiritual path is a practice of consistent emotional deliverance to the love that replaces fear, not merely in response to specific situations but as an attitude toward life. Such practice makes suffering, when it does appear, both endurable and transformable. Only by detaching from the illusions of the world—what Buddha called maya—can we transcend the thoughts and feelings that too often sour our experience of being human.
Buddha’s Four Noble Truths were the realizations that (1) things of this world can provide only temporary happiness at best; (2) suffering is caused by our attachment to the things of this world; (3) we can be liberated from our attachments to the things of this world and thus freed from our suffering; and (4) through the Eightfold Path, or the Middle Way—choosing neither extreme luxury nor extreme self-denial—we can be free of suffering. The Eightfold Path includes Right Understanding, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. These are not just theoretical; they are keys to a peaceful mind.
Right Understanding
Buddhism proclaims that only ultimate reality is real, and it is our attachment to that which is unreal that causes us to suffer. Life simply is what it is. It is not events that cause us to suffer, so much as how we perceive those events.
Someone might have been unkind to us, and because of this we suffer—or so we think. But if only love is real, then the unkindness does not exist except in the realm of illusion. Right Understanding means we see that since the worldly personality is part of the illusion, we do not have to limit our perceptions to the personality that caused us pain. Through Right Understanding we can extend our perceptions beyond what the physical senses perceive to the true reality that lies beyond.
For example, I can choose to close my heart in response to being hurt by you but my pain is then a result not of your having closed your heart to me, but of my having closed my heart to you. I cannot be hurt by something the existence of which I am not attached to. I cannot be affected by something to which I refuse to accord reality.
The words disciple and discipline come from the same root; it takes discipline to focus on what is fundamentally true despite appearances. Right Understanding means refusing to defer to a reality that does not actually exist, despite the fact that our physical senses insist that it does.
The body’s eyes insist that an airplane gets smaller the farther away it flies from us, yet obviously it doesn’t. Our physical senses are indicators of a three-dimensional reality that is a mortal hallucination. The spiritual journey is a s
hift from the outer eye to an inner eye, as we extend our perceptions beyond the veil of illusion to a truer truth that lies beyond.
Releasing the universe from our grasping mind allows us to see it as it truly is. In Buddhism, that state of mental and emotional release is called nirvana. It is an enlightened state of awareness in which the celestial order is restored, karma is undone, and inner peace is possible.
Once when a magazine published a story about me containing embarrassing lies and fabrications, I was devastated. The night it came out, I saw a famous pop star at a dinner and these were his first words to me: “Marianne, pretend you were in Japan. You didn’t even read it.” He said those words so declaratively, with such force, that in that moment I truly realized I had a choice. Since then I have thought of his advice often. To this day, I will sometimes say to myself, “Marianne, pretend you were in Japan,” when I am tempted to misunderstand a situation and allow it to defeat me.
Right Intention
The power of intention has become widely recognized, but it’s a power that can be used for the purposes of both spirit and ego. Used by spirit, intention is a tool in co-creating a more loving world. Used by ego, it is a tool for simply trying to get whatever it is we think we want. Using the power of the mind to make something happen out of sheer self-will, is not necessarily spiritual. That which does not serve love does not serve the spiritual unfolding of the universe, for the spiritual unfolding of the universe is love and love only.
The intentions of the ego mind are that we get this or that, or make this or that happen. Right Intention is a higher vibration entirely. It is the intention that only love prevail for all living things.
The Buddha spoke of both Right Intention and Wrong Intention. Right Intention means the intention to be an instrument of healing; wrong intention means to be an instrument of harm. Neutrality is not an option. All thought creates an effect on some level. What we don’t intend for loving purposes will be appropriated for fearful ones.
We might tell ourselves we had the best of intentions in a situation simply because we didn’t consciously intend to hurt someone. Often, when someone hurts us these days they say, “I didn’t intend to hurt you,” as though that’s an apology. But according to the Buddha, it’s not enough to not intend ill will; we must intend goodwill.
Once we even slightly recognize to what degree every thought we think affects the vibratory field around us, we realize that even what the world doesn’t see or hear, the universe still registers. There is a documentary called The True Cost that reveals the horrible injustices perpetrated against people in sweatshops supplying the “fast fashion” industry. The film perfectly illustrates the conundrum of intentionality. When I buy a twelve-dollar pair of jeans at a trendy discount store, I certainly don’t intend to hurt anyone; I simply intend to find a cool pair of jeans at a good price. After I saw that film, I embraced a higher intention; in this instance, Right Intention means no longer shopping at huge chain stores that sell cheap items at the expense of people working in sweatshops who are treated like little more than slaves on the other side of the world.
From how factory workers are treated and paid in many countries, to the cruel treatment of animals, to even driving alone when we could just as easily carpool, Buddha’s precept of Right Intention calls us to a higher level of consciousness that most of us have yet to reach. Certainly I haven’t. Yet we can try to improve at whatever rate we can. Simply living in modern society poses constant challenges to the concept of Right Intention. The harm we do to others and the harm we allow to be done to others are added to the karmic burden we collectively carry forward.
Right Intention is important to understanding how to heal our suffering because it encourages us to rethink the causes of our pain as well as an appropriate response to it. When we understand how to distinguish between right and wrong intention, we alter the way we deal with our own suffering and how we view suffering throughout the world. We can intend to be instruments of good, even when we least feel like doing so.
“You mean now, while I’m dealing with my own pain, I have to think about how I’m affecting others?” If you want to heal, the answer is yes.
Right Speech
Right Speech is an important aspect of right-mindedness. The words we say emanate subtle and not-so-subtle influence on us and on those around us. The right use of words is an important tool on the path to transforming our suffering.
Buddha identified four keys to Right Speech: words spoken with affection, with honesty, for the good of others, and with the intent of doing good.
Right Speech applies even to how we speak about ourselves. All of us need to talk through things, of course. But while processing is important, sometimes we can inadvertently cross the line from harmlessness to harm, saying self-denigrating things like, “I was so stupid! I’m such a failure!” But an attack on ourselves is no less blasphemous than an attack on others. Although it’s necessary to process life’s disappointments, such processing is best done in the sacred space of professional counseling, anonymous support groups, or the most trusted friendships. It’s important that we seek to be kind to ourselves and others, even as we seek to be honest. With every word we say we’re forming thoughts, and every thought creates form on some level.
Of course we all have negative thoughts, but the point is to own them, to bear witness to them, and then to surrender them. The ego’s plan for getting out of pain is to project its source onto others, but this thwarts our healing. It’s not a question of whether or not we have the “right” to negative feelings; of course we do. The issue is how we choose to manage our personal power. Words have power both to heal and to harm.
It’s inaccurate to think that it doesn’t matter what I say because “I don’t really mean it” or “He’ll never know that I said that.” Think of the universe as having ears. Every word we say bears the imprint of its power, regardless who is listening. I remember when we were children and would say to each other, “Take that back!” whenever someone said something we didn’t like. We clearly knew instinctively that words are powerful. Even today, how often do we say “Cancel, cancel!” when we hear a friend make a negative comment? And for good reason.
Right Speech is more than what we say; it’s also how we say it. I’ve been criticized for speaking in a way that hurt other people’s feelings, when at the time the farthest thing from my mind was the intention to hurt anyone. I had thought I was merely stating facts. But the line between a “share” and an “attack” needs to be monitored closely; what we might feel is simply blunt when we say it might feel harsh to the person who hears it. If our words carry the energy of an attack, then it doesn’t matter whether what we’re saying is true. If we’re attacking someone, then we’re wrong even if we’re right. How true the saying that honesty without compassion is brutality.
The word communication contains the word “commune,” and if we’re not communing, then we’re really not communicating at all. Feeling attacked, the person to whom we’re speaking will not feel we simply “shared our truth.” Understandably, they will defensively shut their hearts to us as they feel we shut our hearts to them, and that, of course, will shut their ears. We will not be heard; we will merely be resented. And the cycle of violence will go on.
Learning to be as honest and authentic as possible, yet taking responsibility for the heart space between ourselves and someone else, is essential to enlightenment.
Right Speech also includes recognizing the power of not speaking at all. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Speak only if it improves upon the silence.” One of the fruits of meditation is enabling a still and quiet mind, no small thing in a world where far too many people seem to lack impulse control. The ego wants to say it, and wants to say it now. Send that text! Send that email! Make that phone call! Tell ’em what you think! But simply having a thought, no matter how true it might be, does not necessarily mean it should be shared or shared right now.
If, when hurt, we surrend
er our feelings to God, then we may or may not feel moved to speak at all. When and if there are things to be said, things that would reflect the highest good, then we’ll be guided not only on what to say, but also on when and how to say it. That makes all the difference in the world.
Negative gossip is another issue that applies to Right Speech; basically, if a person we’re talking about wouldn’t be glad to hear what we’re saying about them, then we probably shouldn’t be saying it. I remember my mother used to quote Thumper in Bambi, “If you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” Because all minds are joined, subconsciously everyone knows everything. Whatever we’re saying about anyone, on some level they know it. Every word spoken—about ourselves, about others, about anything at all—carries the force of the thought behind it. You know that old saying: “Stick and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? Well it isn’t true. Verbal violence is still violence, and words can hurt a lot.
Right Action
Right Action is the directive to act only in ways that are in harmony with the universe. It stems automatically from the ultimate reality of who we are, which is infinite compassion.
Too often in today’s world, we think of what to do only in terms of whether or not it will get us what we want. But Right Action is a call to a higher motivation for our behavior. Some things we should do for no other reason than that they’re the right thing to do—not because we’ll get something out of it, and not because other people will know about it and applaud. We should do it for no other reason than that it’s in alignment with integrity, honesty, goodness, and love.
Tears to Triumph Page 13