by Raphael Comprone
I’ve often heard that modern inventions have improved our lives significantly. Jet planes allows us to travel great distances in short periods of time. Cellular phones allow us to speak to each other while driving or flying. Increased industrialization has created a global marketplace. But we have purchased these amenities for a price. We are now at a loss spiritually—even our religious institutions have become capitalist enterprises, small empires that are just as corrupt as our governments. Moreover, technological development has failed to quench our restlessness. The newness of new toys wears off eventually. Money buys only temporary happiness. Rain forests are being destroyed as greed prevents us from caring for the earth. The oceans are being polluted, but we still need to make money. People have become shallow, insensitive, and materialistic. For the honest person, life looks bleak. How good can one feel sitting in a mansion surrounded by wealth and luxury while others suffer and die daily from starvation?
Happiness is hard to find in a materialistic society. The small beauties of life have disappeared in the wake of long-term goals. We cling to goals and ideals we’ve inherited from our parents. We are not good enough or must have done something wrong if we don’t achieve these goals. We are hard on ourselves whenever we make mistakes. We tend to look to others instead of relying on ourselves. We have learned from our families, our teachers, and everyone else that it is better to be a follower than a leader or an independent thinker. We have become dependent on technology. We have become dependent on our bosses and leaders. Democrats and Republicans both claim to support the people, but both serve the interests of the rich and powerful. Everywhere in the modern world financial independence and entrepreneurism are perceived as the key to personal success. But would the corporate executive officers, the presidents, and the communist parties of the world survive without the consent of the people?
Maybe if we had some depth we would look into the problem of suffering. We might begin to realize that what really counts is our inner mind. Suddenly, the self-help books make sense. We look at ourselves in the mirror and watch ourselves smile. Are we really happy or are we just looking happy? But we can’t believe in our smile. It is so shallow and superficial. It smacks of deception and brings back memories of smiling for a camera at weddings, graduations, and family events. It’s not real. A real smile acknowledges sorrow. Our inner selves know this deep down inside.
Money can’t buy happiness. Money is needed for food, clothing, and shelter, and a moderate amount of money is always helpful to live a balanced life. But it can’t buy satisfaction. People pursuing money, status, and power lose themselves in lust and the quest for worldly pleasures that never last.
Sex is not happiness either. How many men and women eventually become turned off by their lovers? Sex often becomes a series of power struggles. Or sex becomes another way to manipulate someone—to get their money or rob their innocence. A moderate sexual desire is necessary for the survival of the species. And sex can be gentle and loving, giving and intimate. But most of us are scared of the intimacy that bonds the sexes in the procreative act. This intimacy means letting go of our masks and revealing our true selves underneath, our blissful selves.
The desire for power and control is also natural. But why should we want to control and dominate others for own gain? This has occurred since the beginning of human history. But wouldn’t it be refreshing if our happiness did not depend on whether we remained in control? If we let go of our possessive desire and acknowledged our humility before God, nature, or the universe? Even the desire for enlightenment can be a desire for control.
If life is such a struggle, why do we continue? What makes all the pain and the hardship worthwhile? After all, sooner or later we have to face the fact that we must die, no matter how many immortality pills we take. We have to accept the fact that we will remain ignorant no matter how many books we read because there is always more to know.
The Buddha’s philosophy is very rich and profound, but it is not for everyone. It would be hard to convince someone who has worshipped money, power, and material success of the value of the Buddha’s law. But the Buddha taught each human being not to despair. Even the most deluded, stingy, and cruel person has the potential for enlightenment. Everyone has the Buddha nature because we are all born free from delusion. We are born with insight into all phenomena. We can realize our ultimate freedom, which is our natural freedom. It is so natural it is startlingly obvious. It can be experienced in this lifetime. And perhaps it has extended from another lifetime into this one. There doesn’t have to be any limitations on this freedom. It is not bound by words, like these words on paper. Words have no meaning unless your heart is in them. This freedom is not bound by space.
We often cling to a certain mental image of ourselves and try to maintain it. Businessmen wear ties and the fanciest clothes possible. Women often want to be skinny and starve themselves. We cannot be free if our minds cling to a certain image of ourselves. The nature of the mind is really formless. Imagination has no form. In the deepest perception of reality, every discrimination made by the mind is conditioning of the mind. Our true awareness is the perception of unity. Nothing is separate and everything is part of reality, including life, death, and the various changes in the world. This perception of the limitless inter-connection of everything is formless.
Awareness and acceptance of formlessness brings about a certain freedom. We do not have to remain the same and will not remain the same. We are free because we do not remain one shape. We evolve and change. When we really look at ourselves in the mirror, we see only a shadow of ourselves. In the future, we will have changed. We might be afraid of the changes. Our hair is turning gray, for example. But if our minds are free from attachment, we simply watch this process and live healthy and natural lives. If our body ages, we let it age. We go with the flow of nature and bend with the needs of the moment. When it is winter, we dress for wintertime. If we experience hardship, we recognize our feelings instead of repressing them. We let go of our fears and enter directly into experience. This is called the path of least resistance. We let nature take its course. We don’t let the boundaries of the concrete spatial world limit our imagination. The spatial world can be a prison for the mind.
Time is relative.Each person experiences time differently. People grow at different rates. We also have different perceptions of what it means to experience time. Usually, they are handed down from generation to generation. Time is a boundary for the mind and the imagination—like shape. Some people feel so shackled by time they cannot even stand living. They always feel as if they do not have enough time, or that time is running out. A person who is always focusing on time cannot be free. Thinking about how much time is left in life is a great distraction in today’s world. The problem is not time, but what we do with our time—whether we pursue enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings or cloud ourselves in the shifty twilight of the ego.
How might the Buddhist ideal of nirvana explain any of these problems? What is nirvana after all? What is meditation after all? There is so much talk about nirvana, meditation, mindfulness. Some meditation masters say people must meditate for hours. Sitting meditation is wonderful and it calms one, but true meditation is the application of tolerance and mental strength at all times. Nirvana and the world of appearance, pain, and hardship are only one when the mind is completely tranquil, and yet we often feel that somehow we have mastered meditation if we can sit down in front of a statue of the Buddha. The teachers of meditation talk about inner silence and peace and bliss, but it’s hard not to get jittery when actively trying to achieve stillness. The real teacher is our own mind in its unclouded aspect.
In the Tibetan Dhammapada, the Buddha gives his own recipe for meditation. These are just words on the page. They are not the experience. To experience meditation is to follow his advice. To experience meditation is to test the Buddha’s word through practice, somewhat like a scientist tests a hypothesis.The Buddha’s speculations are only speculations until we examine their profundity.
Just sit quietly somewhere. It is best to sit somewhere away from loud noises or other distractions until you have mastered the process of looking inward. From beginningless time, we have learned to watch the distractions of the world. The distractions of the outer world cloud the empty and non-discriminatory mind of enlightenment.
Close your eyes. Think “I am thinking a beautiful thought.” The world is turbulent outside. Life is really unpredictable. True peace is within. True freedom lasts forever. It cannot be bought or sold. It belongs to every being that lives and dies. True freedom is without bounds. Your mind is an empty cup. Even these words on a page flow past you. You can let go of all your fears. You can let go of all your thoughts. These words on the page are just mental discriminations made by your mind. They are like passing clouds in the sky. They cannot last. You are this flowing stream of words and thoughts. Then, even these words can stop. Try this for a second. There are no words at all. This is bliss because when the mind stops, all our prejudices stop and everything is one. Just simply let go.
Smile carelessly.
When no voice comes into your mind, you are relatively free. If you feel like someone is watching you or telling you what to do, ignore that feeling. Your true self has an attitude. It is an attitude of love and openness. The Buddha said: “The monk contracts conceptual thought” (Sparham, 129).* When our inner voice leaves us and there is stillness and silence, there is connectedness. We simply are and enjoy being. In silence, there is freedom and openness. There is no shyness because there are no second thoughts. There is not compulsion to think.
Like the tortoise with his limbs into his shell,
Not relying, nor doing others harm—
In nirvana, not scorned by anyone (Sparham 129)
How could we be scorned for just being, for being still or maintaining our composure through the ups and downs of life? Try this exercise. Next time you see someone, think to yourself,
My mind is like a cup. I am free to put whatever thoughts I want into the cup. Each thought is like tea leaves. I can choose the flavor. I choose to smile at the other person. I choose to help him with whatever he needs. I choose to forget all of my guilt or past feelings. I am free from whatever my parents told me or society told me. I am free and I am responsible for what I create with my freedom. I will smile a natural smile. I will be naturally calm. I will be naturally free. I will take risks with my new freedom. I will invest in my happiness, an investment to test my new spiritual powers.
Each person and every living creature has the Buddha nature. The smile is contagious. Once we smile others begin to smile. Our perception of ourselves changes. We can now care for each other. We can now see how to create a caring relationship, and we see the value of caring.
You can now smile for anyone. Whatever goes wrong, you will simply bear the burden humbly and be as cheerful as possible. When you smile, you know you have pain. You know you have many scars. You know life is painful and unpredictable. But you will smile anyway. You smile and you care. You smile and you assume responsibility for every creature’s happiness. You smile and you show them the way to happiness. You don’t have to change them. You can be happy in a difficult world. It is a confident sort of happiness. Life now becomes an adventure. You no longer feel burned out. There is so much energy in an open smile. I once had a friend named Sunshine. She always smiled. I wondered how she could smile in these hard times. Now I know how. After all, a sense of humor is a serious matter.
But nirvana is not dualistic. True happiness is not separate from the all-pervasive reality of suffering. Suffering is temporary because this world is temporary. Even the richest person must eventually renounce everything and die. It is miserable to die fearing death. Until we have the courage to be at peace in a world of suffering and until we develop compassion, we are not whole. Physical pleasure and intellectual stimulation cannot end craving and greed.
Once we have realized that everything we pursue in this world is futile and transient, we can give up the pursuit. We simply live here for a time and we learn to accommodate ourselves to the reality of suffering and change. We know that true peace is with us wherever we go. Nirvana is within. It is love within. It is acceptance of change. Nirvana is a carefree smile. It is even pity for our oppressors. The world is the biggest oppressor of all because everything in the world perishes. It is unhealthy to become attached to the karma of the world. It is healthier to be free. True freedom comes from compassion. It does not spring from hatred or fear:
Just as the rowboat is lightened
When you bail all the water out,
So too nirvana is attained
When hatred and greed are given up (Sparham 130).
True freedom, nirvana, depends on maintaining peace within. Peace gives us the strength to survive hardship. And compassion gives us the ability to help others. Without these two, life is shallow and we burn ourselves out trying to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. If we want peace, we must make an investment, but true peace has nothing to do with worldly success.
In this existence, there is much stress and hardship unless one seeks enlightenment. We are absolutely pure and open only when we live without attachment. We know that this life will disappear in the blink of an eye. We know that true happiness is acceptance of life and death. Life is blissful when we are no longer afraid of our pain but acknowledge and accept it. We have this life to live and we are free to live it. We can choose to be enlightened and content. We can joyously live without being attached.
Nirvana is an abiding feeling of tranquility even under hardship. Hardship is merely an opportunity to develop spiritually. When we are enlightened, we see that all of us have to suffer death, whether rich or poor. We see that those who are oppressors have no sense of compassion. We take pity on those who have no compassion because we also would want them to grow.
The natural world will always have its difficulties. Fate is sometimes outside of our grasp. But, a sense of peace and tranquility as well as compassion, and the end of greed and grasping, is possible. This peace eases the mind and is true freedom from stress and sorrow. Under this frame of mind, one does what is possible and feels content with helping the rest of the world. One easily perceives the interconnectedness of all things. One also exercises caution in whatever one sets out to do. Nirvana is an unshakable peace of mind and is lasting peace from moment to moment.
Nirvana is our natural state of mind. It is because of conditioning that the unhealthy and pessimistic state of mind has taken root and become a habit. The Buddha’s dharma is like sunlight for a plant. It can eliminate the mental poisons of excessive greed, hatred, and lust and expose our inner nature. From the perspective of nirvana, beauty, wealth, and power are only transitory. Attachment to power, control, wealth, and beauty are poisons for the mind. Buddha discovered that there is a wealth more opulent, more satisfying, and more rewarding than the satisfaction of desire and worldly pleasures. Purifying one’s own behavior and acting in accordance with one’s conscience are the richest activities one can pursue. In order to follow this path one must have patience and faith in the dharma.
Enlightenment is possible in the lives of myriad beings. There may be many ways to climb Mount Everest, yet all lead to the same destination, the summit, and all paths require perseverance, inner tranquility, and concentration. The dharma or the law of the Buddha takes root in everything. The mind is either tamed or untamed. The mind is therefore the commander of the body. Without mental quiescence, it is difficult to concentrate. A balanced and even mind is therefore the key to nirvana and to enduring the difficulties of samsara, the cycle of birth and death.
Nirvana is not some inward state removed from the world. A meditator experiences the phenomenon of pain keenly and with awareness. The mind is not hazy or foggy. We all have a natural desire to avoid unhappiness and to seek peace. Through meditation, we can realize that all the pain, even the greatest pain of this existence, caused by hatred, insatiable greed, disease, and other factors that create a disturbed mind are not permanent. Therefore, they cannot disturb our inner peace. We should focus our concentration inward whenever these afflicted emotions arise. The samsaric mind is influenced by whatever happens. If one is poor, one desires to be rich. If one is rich, one desires to be richer. There is always something more to be gained. The mind is in a constant state of craving. We then feel that we must enjoy this craving somehow, especially in a materialistic society. But how many of us are smiling while we chase after these goals? We are so distracted by our desires and the external world we do not see that the highest mountain and the most glorious and beautiful realm of nirvana is within us.
*All references to The Tibetan Dhammapada (Translation of Udanavarga) Compilation of indicative verse are taken from Gareth Sparham, Blo-Bzan-rgya-Mtsho, Phu-Khan Dge-Bses. Ngawang The Kchok. Simon, Beth Lee, (New Delhi, Mhayana Publications, 1983).