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Buddhist
Publication Society Newsletter Spring 1989 No. 12 |
A Remedy for Despair
Most of us live in
the cramped cold cages of our private projects, frantically struggling to stake
out our own little comfortable place in the sun. Driven in circles by anxious
yearnings and beckoning desires, we rarely ever glance aside to see how our
neighbour is faring, and when we do it is usually only to assure ourselves that
he is not trying to encroach upon our own domain or to find some means by which
we might extend our dominion over his. Occasionally,
however, it somehow happens that we manage to detach ourselves from our
obsessive pursuits long enough to arrive at a wider clearing. Here our focus of
concern undergoes a remarkable shift. Lifted above our habitual fixation on
myopic goals, we are brought to realize that we share our journey from birth to
death with countless other beings who, like ourselves, are each intent on a
quest for the good. This realization, which often topples our egocentric
notions of the good, broadens and deepens our capacity for empathy. By breaking
down the walls of self-concern it allows us to experience, with a particularly
inward intimacy, the desire a11 beings cherish to be free from harm and to find
an inviolable happiness and security. Nevertheless, to the extent that this
flowering of empathy is not a mere emotional effusion but is accompanied by a
facility for accurate observation, it can easily turn into a chute plunging
us down from our new-found freedom into
a chasm of anguish and despair. For when, with eyes
unhindered by emotively tinged blinkers, we turn to contemplate the wide
expanse of the world, we find ourselves gazing into a mass of suffering that is
vertiginous in its volume and ghastly in its intensity. The guarantor of our
complacency is the dumb thoughtless glee with which we acquiesce in our daily
ration of sensual excitation and ego-enhancing kudos. Let us raise our heads a
little higher and cast our eyes about, and we behold a world steeped in pain
where the ills inherent in the normal life-cycle are compounded still more by the
harshness of nature, the grim irony of accident, and the cruelty of human
beings. As we grope about for a handle to prevent ourselves from plummeting
down into the pits of despondency, we may find the support we need in a theme
taught for frequent recollection by the Buddha: "Beings are the owners of
their kamma, the heirs of their kamma; they are molded, formed and upheld by
their kamma, and they inherit the results of their own good and bad
deeds." Often enough this reflection has been proposed as a means to help
us adjust to the vicissitudes in our personal fortunes: to accept gain and
loss, success and failure, pleasure and pain, with a mind that remains
unperturbed. This same theme, however, can also serve a wider purpose, offering
us succour when we contemplate the immeasurably greater suffering in which the
multitudes of our fellow beings are embroiled. Confronted with a
world that is ridden With conflict, violence, exploitation and destruction, we
feel. compelled to find some way to make sense out of their evil consequences,
to be able to see in calamity and devastation -something more than regrettable
but senseless quirks of fate. The Buddha's teaching on kamma and its fruit
gives us the key to decipher the otherwise unintelligible stream of events. It
instructs us. to
recognize in the diverse fortunes of living beings; not caprice or accident,
but the operation of a principle of moral equilibrium which ensures that
ultimately a(, perfect balance obtains between the happiness and suffering
beings undergo and the ethical quality of their intentional actions. Contemplation on the
operation of kamma is not a cold and calculated expedient for justifying a
stoical resignation to the status quo. The pathways of kamma are labyrinthine
in their complexity, and acceptance of this causal order does not preclude a
battle against human avarice, brutality and stupidity or stifle beneficent
action intended to prevent unwholesome deeds from finding the opportunity to
ripen. Deep reflection on kammio retribution does, however, brace us against
the shocks of calamity and disappointment by opening up to our vision the
stubborn unwieldiness of a world ruled by greed, hate and delusion, and the
deep hidden lawfulness connecting its turbulent undercurrents with the
back-and-forth swing of surface events. While on the one hand this
contemplation awakens a sense of urgency, a drive to escape the repetitive
round of deed and result, on the other it issues in equanimity, an unruffled
inner poise founded upon a realistic grasp of our existential plight. Genuine
equanimity, which is far from callous indifference, sustains us in our journey
through the rapids of samsaara. Bestowing upon us courage and endurance, it
enables us to meet the fluctuations of fortune without being shaken by them,
and to look into the face of the world's, sufferings without being shattered by
them.
Exploring
the Wheels
Since the late 19th
century Arthur Schopenhauer has been one of the most widely read European philosophers,
with an influence extending beyond academic boundaries to literary, artistic
and intellectual circles. The correspondence between Schopenhauer's thought and
Buddhism has often been noted; but usually only to be dismissed by superficial
critics with the tacile "reproach of pessimism." To counter this
charge Bhikkhu Ñaanajiivako has compiled a selection from the German thinker's
writings in Schopenhauer and Buddhism (Wheel No. 144/146), now in its second
printing. With documentary evidence the author demonstrates that Schopenhauer
had a thorough acquaintance with Buddhist teachings, which he avidly studied
through the translations and accounts already appearing in the West in the
early 19th century. Indeed, he even kept a small gilded statue of the Buddha on
a shelf in his apartment. The core of Ven. Ñaanajiivako's
work is Chapter 3, on the Four Noble Truths, which reveals that Schopenhauer
(contrary to his critics) had insights into all tour of the Buddhist truths.
The reader without an interest in the historical background to Schopenhauer's
Buddhist influences may proceed straight to this chapter, where he will find an
impressive selection of passages expressing in fresh and illuminating ways the
philosopher's Buddhistic intuitions. Thus under the
topic. "Suffering" is found the following: We then see these (beings)
involved in constant suffering and without any lasting happiness. For all
striving springs from want or deficiency, from dissatisfaction with one's own
state or condition, and is therefore suffering so long as it is not satisfied.
No satisfaction, however, is lasting; it is always merely the starting point of
a fresh striving. We see striving everywhere impeded in many ways, everywhere
struggling and fighting, and hence always suffering. An optimist tells me
to open my eyes and to look at the world and see how beautiful it is in the
sunshine with its mountains, valleys, rivers, plants, animals, etc. But is the
world, then, a peep-show? These things are certainly beautiful to behold, but to be them is something
quite different. (p.44) Schopenhauer has
seen not only the omnipresence of suffering in life, but also that this
suffering springs from "the will," what the Buddha calls in the
second noble truth "thirst" w "craving": Much intense willing
always entails much intense suffering. For all suffering is simply nothing but
unfulfilled and thwarted willing ... The world is only the mirror of this
willing; and all finiteness, all suffering, all miseries that it contains,
belong to the expression of what the will wills, are as they are because the
will so wills ... So long as our consciousness is filled by our will, so long
as we are given up to the throng of desires with its constant hopes and fears,
so long as we are the subject of willing, we never obtain lasting happiness or
peace. (pp.51-53) Consequently,
Schopenhauer sees that release from suffering comes about through the abolition
of willing by knowledge of the inner nature of the world: He knows the whole,
comprehends its inner nature, and finds it involved in a constant passing away,
a vain striving, an inward conflict, and a continual suffering ... That
knowledge of the whole ... becomes a quieter of all and every willing. The will
now turns away from life; it shudders at the pleasures in which it recognized
the affirmation of life. Man attains to the state of voluntary renunciation,
resignation, true composure and complete will-lessness. (p.58) The fourth noble
truth is here exemplified by a passage from the section entitled "The Road
to Salvation," a phrase Schopenhauer himself used as the tide of a chapter
in his major work. The passage concerns his use of the word
"eudaemonology," the art of wise living: What a man is by
himself, what accompanies him into solitude, and what no one can give him or
take away from him, is obviously more essential to him than everything he
possesses, or even what he may be in the eyes of others. For any earnest
student of the Dhamma, this book will offer many pithy comments on life, many
rich thoughts for contemplation.
Book
Reviews
A Still Forest Pool:
The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah. Compiled and edited by Jack Kornfield
and Paul Breiter. Theosophical Publishing House; 306 West Geneva Road; Wheaton,
IL 60187; USA. 192 pp. US $8.50. Achaan Chah is one
of the best known and most influential contemporary Theravada Buddhist
meditation masters, and the one who has been most successful in making the
forest monastic tradition of Buddhist Asia accessible to seekers of Dhamma from
the West. This book, compiled by two former American students of his, offers an
excellent cross-section of the Achaan's vibrant and muki-faceted teaching. The
presentation takes the form of excerpts from Achaan Chah's discourses
interlaced with anectodes about his daily routine and his encounters with
pupils and inquirers. The selections are all short and self-contained, most
being only slightly longer than a page, and are arranged into seven parts,
including a long one consisting of questions and answers. Each part is preceded
by a brief introduction by the compilers, and the general introduction
gracefully introduces the reader to the forest monastic tradition via a
travelogue of a trip to Achaan Chah's root temple, Wat Ba Pong. Beautifully
produced, the book is illustrated with line drawings depicting everyday scenes
in the life of a Thai forest monastery. The wide variety of
teachings given in the selections aptly reveal the wisdom and wit of this
venerable Buddhist master. Unlike those meditation teachers who stress technique
and quick results in short-term courses, Achaan Chah offers no easy substitute
for the thorough overhauling of one's views, attitudes and conduct required to
successfully accomplish the Buddha's way. His discourses repeatedly stress the
need for virtue, right understanding and wholesome aims as the foundation for
practice and inculcate patience and endurance as the keys to progress. It is
this particular emphasis that has enabled Achaan Chah to offer Western
Theravada a most precious. legacy - a well-trained Sangha committed to carry on
the transmission of the teaching. While I wish I could
endorse this book without reservation, there are two quibbles I have to raise.
One is over the use of Sanskrit terms such as- Dharma and Nirvana to convey
Theravada teachings; surely the Pali terms should have been used and the
Sanskrit equivalents relegated to the glossary. The second, more serious caveat
concerns several statements attributed to Achaan Chah in the last section of
the book, that entitled "Realization." Here we stumble upon a string
of expressions strikingly inconsistent with the Pali canonical teaching that
underlies Achaan Chah's approach to the Dhamma - the Dharma as our true self,
the Buddha as the ground of being, becoming one with the universe - and these
anomalies raise the question whether the translators have not rendered those
passages too freely, perhaps reading into them ideas garnered from elsewhere.
These reservations apart, A Still Forest Pool can be heartily recommended as an
inspiring overview of the teachings and charismatic personality of one of our
age's great Buddhist teachers. Being Nobody, Going
Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path. Ayya Khema. Wisdom Publications; 23
Dering Street; London W1 R 9AA. 186 pp. £6.95 / US $12.95. This book, winner of
The Buddhist Society's prestigious Christmas Humphreys Memorial Award, consists
of a collection of talks given during a ten-day meditation course by the
German-born Buddhist nun, Ayya Khema. In her preface the author writes that
"this is a simple book for ordinary people," yet the simplicity of
Ayya Khema's approach in no way detracts from the power or cogency of her
message. To the contrary her straightforward unvarnished style of delivery
communicates with startling directness the urgency of the meditative endeavour. Although Ayya Khema
is in no way a scholar, her discourses reveal a firm grasp of fundamentals as
well as a down-to-earth awareness of the deceptions and pitfalls that confront
the treader of the path. Many of her formulations, punctuated by homely similes
and examples, drive home the perennial truths taught by the Buddha with
memorable vivacity and vigour. For beginners this book will be a wellspring of
guidance and inspiration, while even for veterans its fresh formulations should
breathe new life into ideas long grown stale and too familiar.
Office
News
Our regular readers
would have noticed that, since 1987, our Wheels and Bodhi Leaves have been of a
much improved print quality. Earlier we did receive occasional complaints about
the quality of our letterpress prints, which seemed incongruous in this age of
sophisticated printing technology. What held us back from venturing into more
costly methods of production was our reluctance to increase the prices of our books,
which, it seems, would have been inevitable. As a result of some kindly advice
and a very generous gift from a West German friend, we are now able to typeset
our periodicals and smaller book publications very attractively right at our
office, using an Atari ST computer and a versatile document processor named
Signum, well-suited to our needs. The camera-ready copy turned out by this
system is then given to a printer for offset reproduction. Though our system
has spared us the drastic increase in production costs that we feared, our
costs have risen, and this has forced us to make some changes in our pricing.
Our back issues of letterpress-produced Wheels and Bodhi Leaves will remain at
current prices, but issues produced by offset have undergone a slight increase,
and this has altered our subscription policy as well. From Wheel No.
339/341 onwards, the Wheel will cost US $.80 (or SL Rs.10) per number; for
those issues produced by offset. -Bodhi Leaves beginning from No. B 110 will
cost US $.25 (or SL Rs.3) per copy. In our next catalog, offset prints will be
indicated by an asterisk Since Associate
Membership subscription fees are relative to the prices of our periodicals, the
options we had were either to increase the annual membership fee or to reduce
the number of mailings per year from four to three. We have opted for the
latter. However, we hope that the improved quality of our productions as well
8s the newsletter - a recent feature - will at least partly make up for this
reduction by one mailing.
Note: The Zen Lotus
Society wishes us to inform our readers that their journal previously called
Spring Wind - Buddhist Cultural Forum will henceforth be named Buddhist Review.
The Society issues a video cassette called World Buddhism in North America (2
hrs., US $65) on the Conference on World Buddhism in North America held in July
1987, and a "Statement of Consensus" resulting from the Conference
($3.50). These may be ordered from: Zen Buddhist Temple, 1214 Packard Road, Ann
Arbor, MI 48104, USA; or from: Zen Buddhist Temple, 86 Vaughan Road, Toronto,
Ont. M6C 2M1, Canada. The same addresses should be used for inquiries regarding
Buddhist Review.
Guidelines
to Sutta Study
After expounding the
Four Noble Truths to the five ascetics in the Deer Park at Benares, the Buddha
proceeds to make three weighty statements about each of the truths. Although
most accounts of the Buddha's first discourse break off after explaining the
meaning of the four truths, an examination of these auxiliary statements is as
crucial to an understanding of the Buddha's message as is an analysis of the
content of the truths themselves. The Buddha himself will underscore the
importance of this passage a little further on in the discourse, when he
declares that it was only after he had purified his knowledge and vision of the
four truths in their three phases and twelve aspects that he claimed in the
world that he had awakened to the supreme perfect enlightenment. The additional
passage of the first sermon which we are about to examine discloses these three
phases and twelve aspects. In this passage (pp.
8-9 of Wheel No. 17) the Buddha indicates, in the succinct but pithy style of
the suttas, what precisely is to be done about the Pour Noble Truths. For the
Buddha brings to us the teaching of the truths not merely as a revelation about
the human condition but as a task or challenge put to us by our existential
situation - or, more exactly, as an interlocking set of four tasks each of
which, like the truths from which they arise, simultaneously implies all the
others. In his exposition
the Buddha makes twelve statements, three about each truth. Each statement in
the sequence concerning any one truth is parallel in formulation to those made
about the other truths, the specific element of content alone being variable.
These three types of statement enunciate three types of knowledge: (1) knowledge about
the truth itself (sacca-.taana), (2) knowledge about the task imposed by the
truth (kicca-.taana); and (3) knowledge that
the task has been accomplished (kata-.taana). In regard to the
first noble truth, the first knowledge is the recognition "This is the
noble truth of suffering." Here the word "this" refers to the
entire explanation of the first truth set forth earlier in the discourse,
particularly to the five aggregates of clinging as the essential referent of
the term "suffering." This knowledge of the first noble truth, which
initially must be intellective and conceptual, is an integral part of the
preliminary right view at the head of the Noble Eightfold Path. The second knowledge
grasps that the noble truth of suffering is to be fully understood, that full understanding (pari.t.taa) is the task
imposed by the truth of suffering. Thus this knowledge also reveals to us that
the practice of the Buddhist path is, from one angle, an unfolding course of
understanding. To fulfill the practice of the Buddhist path we must be prepared
to direct our attention away from the captivating objects of the senses and
inward upon the constituents of our own individual being, comprised by the five
aggregates of material form, feeling, perception, mental formations and
consciousness. Through sustained mindfulness and systematic investigation, the
apparent monolith of experience must be dissected analytically into its minute
components, and these must be contemplated first by way of their distinct
individual qualities, and then in terms of their universal marks -
impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self. When this contemplative insight
into the five aggregates reaches consummation with the supramundane path of
stream-entry, the blinders of false ascription that make us cling to the
aggregates as "I" and "mine" fall away and the immediate
certainty becomes established that the five aggregates are indeed the noble
truth of suffering. This penetrative
understanding of the truth of suffering comes to completion with the attainment
of the fourth and final path, that of arahantship. For the arahant the last
vestiges of ignorance that concealed the true nature of the five aggregates
have been dissipated by the light of wisdom, and thence for him the task
imposed by the first noble truth has been accomplished. Whereas those still
striving on the path must recognize the challenge that confronts them - that
the noble truth of suffering should be fully understood - the araharnt can
declare of himself: "This noble truth of, suffering has been fully
understood." This is the last of the three knowledges concerning the first
truth, the knowledge that the task has been accomplished. Possessed of this
knowledge, the arahant rests in the assurance that he has fully understood
everything necessary to effect his deliverance from suffering. The challenge of
unveiling the truth about our being has been completed in every degree and
beyond this nothing more remains to be fully understood.
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