The Essence of Buddhism

The Jacksonville KTC has just begun a group study of The Essence of Buddhism by the Venerable 9th Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche. It’s a wonderful book that approaches Buddhism from the perspective of the Kagyu lineage, the second oldest lineage in Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu lineage is also the most wide spread school of Tibetan Buddhism in the United States. Unlike many of the Tibetan born monks who have emigrated to the west, Traleg Rinpoche speaks and teaches in English. He also has a deep understanding of western philosophy and culture and presents the teachings in a way that is easily understood, yet not over simplified, by westerners.

The very first chapter of the book addresses the foundation of the Buddha’s teachings, known as the Four Noble Truths. They are:

1. The truth of suffering
2. The origin of suffering
3. The cessation of suffering
4. The way out of suffering

The truth of suffering is that all living beings experience suffering. Even those who believe they are “happy,” experience suffering in one form or another. As everything changes, so does states of happiness. In my life, and in our culture, a tremendous amount of emphasis is placed on “happiness.” Will that relationship make me happy? Will that car make me happy? Will that job, or school, or friendship, or living situation make me happy? Do the choices in my life make me happy? This is often synonymous with “do I have problems?” Surely, if I have problems I can’t be happy. And if I’m not happy I’m not doing it right, and who wouldn’t do it right if they could? Only a person with problems.

You can’t meditate on suffering without meditating on happiness. We may find happiness at times, but it is always temporary. Feelings change, feelings of happiness, sorrow, anger, dissatisfaction - all change. Circumstances change. Our bodies change. Our health changes. We’ve all experienced periods of emotional roller coasters, up and down, up and down. Feeling ok. Feeling bad. Feeling nothing. We’ve experienced periods of good, strong health. We’ve experienced periods of illness, flu, colds, and, for some, more serious illnesses. Seeking happiness all the time, or expecting a state of happiness to be permanent breeds dissatisfaction. Because happiness is not permanent.

I recently wrote about being dissatisfied in a previous blog. It is a feeling that overwhelms me periodically. I feel dissatisfied and focus on one or two aspects of my life. I generally seek out a cause for that dissatisfaction outside of my self. I case build to validate my anger and frustration. I focus on it or the person and blame, blame, blame. I either set out to extricate myself from the problematic circumstance or I brood about it with the self righteous knowledge that “it’s not my fault!” And like everything else, the feeling of dissatisfaction changes, and goes away, till next time.

Buddhism is often thought to be predicated on a pessimistic view of life. If life is suffering, if that is the truth of it, then why bother? Why not just end it all? After all, life is not meant to be an endurance contest. But that is not what Buddha taught. In Traleg Rinpoches’s words, “The Buddha was not against happiness; rather he gave us a method of finding out how to overcome that sense of dissatisfaction, and this method is part of the last noble truth.”

Learning the method takes many millions of lifetimes. But ya gotta start somewhere. And here I am. Fortunate enough to be born into a situation that has exposed me (even if late in life) to the teachings of the Buddha. There’s no magic in Buddhism. There’s no savior or divine being that oversees and orchestrates all. There are only truths. The truth of suffering. The truth of cause and effect. And the words of the Buddha, as he instructs us not to take his word for it. He encourages all to seek and find for themselves.

The teachings of the Buddha make sense to me only when I apply the menutia of my life to them. When I examine my feelings, my behavior, my experiences and patterns, then I can understand what his teachings are all about. Unlike my experiences with other religions, there are no mysteries. There is only that which I have not yet experienced , faced honestly, or thoroughly examined.