Dukkha - the way out!

This is the last of six weeks looking at Dukkha from various angles.

So for these six weeks we are looking at Dukkha, or some ways in which we make life hard for ourselves. Dukkha is that ‘second arrow’ – the first arrow is something that happens and the second arrow is what we add on top through our thinking. We looked at interpretation (how we make sense of what we observe), expectations (what we expect or want to happen), how we act, and last week we looked at how the mind likes thinking in black-and-white terms.

This week we’ll look at Dukkha itself in a bit more detail, through a more traditional Buddhist description, diagnosis and remedy.

A caution about this: I’ll tell you about these because I think they are interesting and worth investigating. I don’t expect anyone to take them on trust. In fact Buddhism really discourages taking things on trust. The Buddha once said: try out my teachings in your own experience, test them as you would test gold to see if it is real, and only adopt them if you can see the benefits.

The traditional description of the different types of Dukkha is this list: birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, & despair are dukkha; association with the unbeloved is dukkha; separation from the loved is dukkha; not getting what is wanted is dukkha.

I’m now going to introduce another technical Buddhist term, which is tanha – usually translated as craving. It is used to identify a particular type of mental state – the flash of anger when someone doesn’t do what we want them to, the flash of greed when we see some chocolate cake, the way we try to shape life to our convenience. Craving is a completely natural part of how the mind operates – and it is also the bit of the mind that keeps us restlessly wanting something more or something new.

So the Buddhist diagnosis of Dukkha is that Dukkha is caused by craving.

We saw craving in interpretation – the quick interpretation can be quite partial and based on our own interests. We saw it in expectations – which basically are a form of craving – and in actions – particularly the ones that happen before we know it, for instance when we find ourselves saying something that we later regret. We saw it I hope in the opposites, as the force that pushes the opposites apart and that makes them seem solid and black and white.

• Possible to lessen it. The way to do this is via mindfulness, and living ones’ values, and seeing clearly how things are – e.g. everything changes – so that one can see that the craving is unhelpful. This is a path, not something that can be ticked off as done.
• Possible (perhaps) to transform the mind so that it operates in a different way altogether – this is enlightenment.
• We talked last week about the Zen saying ‘… when love & hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised’ – someone said that seems inhuman and I agreed. Thinking about it a bit more, that’s not quite right, it is more like it is more-than-human. More like everything is seen clearly – all the tragedies and all the triumphs, all the deaths and all the births – and it is all seen tenderly with no possibility of selfishness – and on that basis action is taken.
• We got a glimpse of that last week when someone very movingly talked about the dark side and the light side of the Christchurch massacre – and both coexist. Quality of bearing all sides of a situation at once – opposite to craving.
• Gone a bit beyond mindfulness here, but mindfulness is a step along the way – it calms the mind so the craving is less insistent, and it encourages clear-seeing so that we see things less with the partiality of our own craving and more as they really are.

Reflection

For the reflection please can everyone choose a particular form of dukkha that you recognise in your own life. I’ll run through that traditional list again as a prompt: birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, & despair are dukkha; association with the unbeloved is dukkha; separation from the loved is dukkha; not getting what is wanted is dukkha.

Closing the eyes, feeling the bum on the seat, the feet on the floor. Feeling that contact and solidity. Perhaps taking a couple of deep breaths and then letting the breath settle into an even rhythm. Tuning into the sensations of breathing. They are always there as an anchor if the thoughts get too scattered or go out of control.

Bringing to mind the particular form of dukkha you chose.

Is it possible to identify the craving in it – the state of mind that wants things to be different? Bringing mindfulness to this state of mind – seeing if it is possible to stay with it without getting completely swept away by it.

What does the craving feel like in the body? Emotionally? Intensity?

Remembering the smaller picture/bigger picture ways of looking at things from a couple of weeks back. How does the craving feel in the light of this?

Remembering the idea of reality from that Zen saying: ‘… when love & hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised’. How does the craving feel in the light of this?

[Letting this dissolve and coming back to the breathing for a few moments]

Now taking a bit of time to notice ways in which we don’t let the craving win. For instance we are disciplined, we do consider what others need or feel, we do try to look after ourselves and others, we try to think through things clearly and do the right thing.

Any other ways in which we don’t let the craving win?

Can we bring appreciation to what we already do here?

How does that appreciation feel in the body? Emotions? Intensity?

<a little more time> Now letting the reflection dissolve, and coming into meditation.