The first noble truth: Life is suffering. Or at least that's what it boils down to. In the first teaching of the Gautama Buddha after attaining Nirvana, (not going to one of their concerts), there were four noble truths, the first of which was that life ultimately leads to or IS suffereing, (dukkha), in one way or another.
The other three noble truths are about the causes of and solution to this suffering. Basically life is full of "Maya" which is a delusional clinging to attachments and worldly pleasures of all kinds. Even our ideas of self, existence and reality might be maya.
When you find a way to eliminate all this delusion, FIND THE TRUTH, by eliminating craving and desire, you reach a state called "bodhi" or what is called "enlightenment."
In short, don't worry, be happy. You have stumbled upon the path to enlightenment, the "way", the truth, the Light, the Tao, the secret of life or whatever you wanna call it, when you figure out a way to find joy in your suffering. This is not just a Buddhist idea but I think their way of explaining it is the clearest. No pain, no gain. Wisdom comes through suffering. I could go on and on...
This is one of the prevailing philosophies that contributes to my blogging. One might read these pages and wonder why I am such a negative person. Scan through. When was the last column with a little positivity to it? Quite a while ago. So one might be drawn into the trap of believing I am not finding joy in my suffering. But one would be a little bit off the mark in thinking so.
I think of one of the wisest old guys I briefly met and a saying he related to me and my good buddy Gil, (his nephew), under the influence of copius imbibement was, "With all the good in the worst of us, and all the bad in the best, it behoves us all to find fault with the rest." I heard that MANY years ago and it has always struck me as something I needed to remember, yet something I didn't fully understand. Probably because of the use of the word "behove." Be honest with me, YOU had to dive for a dictionary too didn't you? I didn't know what it meant back then either, but I do now. If you didn't, hey good for you! I'm serious. We all should learn at least a word a day.
However, I would like to make an amendment, if I may, and change that old saying to, "With all the good in the worst of us and all the bad in the best, it behoves us all to find some joy in all the rest." I don't think this is much of a change at all since the original words of wisdom are shared with tongue firmly implanted in cheek and that irony all but implies my amended version. I think it was the irony, the purposeful sarcasm with which it was said that created the confusion in me. But I got it. Finally. I think...
Another sage piece of wisdom that steers me down the path to enlightenment was gleaned from an episode of the Sopranos. I'm not kidding. Tony was talking with his therapist after being shot and almost dying and he was just a little past the days when he is grateful for absolutely everything because he nearly lost it. In probably my favourite line from my second favourite TV show, he says, "Every day is a gift. But does it have to be a pair of socks?"
In Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club" there's a scene in which Tyler Durden, (Brad Pitt for those Phillistines who haven't read the book), holds a gun to the head of a guy and threatens to kill him. Here is a pretty good remake of the scene from the movie. Gee, I wonder why the REAL scene isn't on youtube. I wonder why this isn't the most popular clip on youtube. The key is in the last line of the clip. Don't just watch the beginning. Watch it to the end. "The ability to let that which does not matter slide."
Why will Raymond K.K.K.K.K.K. Hessel's breakfast taste so good the next day? Because unlike all of us the night before he had nothing. He was dead. Today he appreciates every single thing he has. If we could remind ourselves daily that we have all we need and THEN some we'd be on our way.
I just got back from years away from my home country. I've been here for about 6 months and I STILL have to force myself to savour the taste of the Canadian beer I'm drinking right now that I couldn't get in Korea. I have to remind myself that the smell of dead leaves I love so much was pretty hard to come by unless you went up to the mountains in Korea. I have to constantly force myself to appreciate my life here or I start to take it for granted and WORST of all DESIRE more. CRAVE more money; a better house; a bigger TV; a car; a faster computer; a hot girlfriend; there is no end to the shit that I crave that I DO NOT NEED! That which I crave is that which does not matter.
In a nutshell, this is the problem with the world. And it's a spiritual problem. To borrow and amend a common phrase from Alcoholics Anonymous, There is no political or economic solution to a spiritual problem.
Every day is a pair of socks. A pair of socks to US in the priveleged countries of the world means exactly nothing. We were really hoping for a lot more. But you give that same pair of socks to someone in a third world country and there will be rejoicing! I think the third world countries are MUCH closer to true happiness, (and I've been in some and people are generally WAY happier in their abject poverty than we are in our abundance), because, whether they want to be or not, they are closer to that state of abandoning all that can lead to craving and desire. Do we have to be forced to be happy? Do we have to have someone take away everything we have to make us appreciate it? Do we need to have someone GIVE us everything we want to make us understand that we don't need it?
These are all mind-bending, bong-filling questions that could be contemplated, ruminated and extrapolated upon for as long as the party goes on. At last we come to the point of this whole blog entry: this is the point of this whole blog entry. I write because I have to. I have to write because it allows me to vent. Allowing me to vent gets all the negativity out so I am able, (or at least more likely to), see the positive side of things and appreciate the veritable goldmine of life's gifts that I have happened into. When I went to the Philippines during Christmas not so long ago my friend Wallace and I bought up a bunch of cheap crap for Christmas gifts for my friend Wallace's family. Junk like liquid watches called "slotches"; yo-yos that lit up as they spun; puzzles; word games; dolls; you get the idear. Nothing over 5 bucks. Wallace dressed up in a Santa suit, rode a trike to the house in Diamond Subdivision, Angeles City, Phils. where we were all gathered for the Christmas festivities. He had a sack full of all the presents and he gave them out to kids who, unlike Canadian kids, actually APPRECIATED them! They all freaked out and said, "WOW! A yo-yo that glows!" And they played and played with their small gifts never losing the joy that they brought. I don't think I have ever spent a better 50 or 100 bucks. Whatever it was. See? I don't remember. If they had all been like Canadian kids and opened them up and immediately said, "Oh. Ho hum. Nice. NEXT!" I would know exactly how much I wasted on those little bastards. But it wasn't like that.
Here is the problem we all have that leads to Prozac and illegal drugs and what have you: it takes a HELLUVA lot to give us joy! And here is the mathematical algorhythm or however you spell that: the amount of joy you have is directly DISproportionate to the amount of money you have. Very complicated eh? It's because the more money you have the LESS impressed you are with everything.
It works on the same principal as "Ignorance is bliss." People who don't know many things and haven't experienced much are far more likely to be easy to please. It's just a fact. We live in societies that are constantly moving from thing to thing thinking the exact opposite: that all this new knowledge and experience will somehow lead AWAY from boredom. But how's that been workin'?
So should we just avoid new things? Should we hide from reality? Or at least what we perceive that reality might be? NO! We just need to develop a kind of spiritual consciousness that allows us to appreciate the all singing all dancing performance of life that is being constantly soft-shoed and belted out before us, FOR FREE, for our own personal enjoyment. If that takes meditation, go for it! If you need to seek psychiatric treatment, you go! If it just requires a few alcoholic beverages or some other form of mental inhibition, I think that's good. If you think you get it from belonging to a club or organized religion, fill yer boots! But if there is some way you can just get it on your own by forcing yourself to OPEN YOUR EYES, I think that's probably the best method. Just, not the easiest thing to do...
See, there IS some reason we're all here. Least that's what I reckon...
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