3 Dhukkas

When the First Noble Truth is told as “Life is Suffering” most people are unhappy because it sounds very negative to them.  

This is a translation problem.

 The Buddha did not speak English, French or Chinese. He did not use the word “Suffering” but “Dukkha”. Unfortunately, we do not have an accurate word to translate “Dukkha”.

Beside “Suffering” it is sometimes translated as “Stress” or “Dissatisfaction”. Actually, these 3 words- concepts - are part of Dukkha, but they do not fully represent it. So we might as well dump them and use “Dukkha”.

Dukkha

The Buddha spoke of 3 aspects of Dukkha :

• Dukkha dukkha – Dukkha of regular Suffering or Pain
• Viparinama dukkha - the Dukkha caused by Impermanence
• Samkhara dukkha - the Dukkha of Conditioned Existence

Dukkha dukkha is easy to understand by most everyone, and it is properly translated in English by “Pain”, or “Suffering. “ It is the physical pain of a tooth ache, or the mental pain of losing a loved one.

There are different interpretations of the next 2 Dukkhas, and I will stick to one only of them. 
 

Viparinama dukkha is the dukkha due to Impermanence - the fact that things change. 
 

Example : You are working in your yard. The outside temperature is in the 80's but you do not feel hot. You walk inside your home to drink a glass of water. The AC is running and you stay inside a little to enjoy the coolness. You get back outside, and immediately feel uncomfortable because of the heat you experience. 

This is Viparinama Dukkha. The temperature has not changed outside, and you were not feeling uncomfortable before, but you enjoyed the coolness of the house, so when you went back outside, it felt too hot to you. So Viparinama dukkha describes the suffering or dissatisfaction arising in us when we lose something we were enjoying. 

 

Sankhara Dukkha is said to be deeper and more subtle, but actually I do not think it very complicated if you look at it from a certain perspective, Sankhara Dukkha deals with OUR impermance and the fact that we have to struggle to stay alive. 
 

What are we really ? We are an assemblage of living cells trying to stick together. At the moment of our conception, a sperm and an egg produce a first living cell which later splits and develops into a fetus by incorporating atoms brought to it by its mother. At the time of birth we begin to absorb food and oxygen from the outside world, and grow a bigger body. This growing of an individual being is one of 2 great trends of the universe. 
 

One trend organizes, structures and bring order. The opposite and complimentary trend disorganizes, dissolves and brings chaos. 
 

A powerful description of this is the Taoist Yin-Yang theory. Practically it describes everything is subject to 2 competing and complimentary trends, one promotes the organization of usually inanimate matter into a well defined entity separate from the rest of the universe, one trend tends to the opposite. Matter gets organized into a fawn, the fawn tries to stay alive, but eventually will die, the molecules that composed him separate, and will one day become part of an other creature. Or he could be eaten by a wolf, and part of him will become part of the wolf. There is a constant flow, it is almost a dance. Matter gets organized and disorganized constantly.

In the case of human beings, our evolution as a specie has given us one extremely potent tool to help us staying alive as individuals : our ego, or sense of self. Without this very potent tool, it is unlikely that we would have survived surrounded by the predators that were after us 100,000 years ago. One characteristic of human is their extraordinary will to live and fight to survive amazingly difficult physical or mental situations. This is the job of the ego. (And our problem comes from believing that we ARE this ego - but this is a different story).

So Sankhara Dukkha is the stress due to our constant trying to keep us alive as an entity, trying to keep together all molecules that are composing us while the rest of the universe wants them scattered... We are an assemblage of a great number of elements, we try – against the rest of the universe - to keep them together, and it is a constant effort. This is life itself, this is Sankhara Dukkha.

When you really look at them, the 3 Dukkha are not that different, They all comes back to impermanence and dependent origination. But teaching the 3 kinds will help better understand the 1st noble Truth.

Cravings - The roots of suffering

Listening to the radio last Monday morning - Beside the Toyota recalls, most talks about the economy, the rate of joblessness, etc, etc... If people are unemployed, they cannot buy stuff, and then there is no need to create jobs to build this stuff. So now is time for the Government to DO something! So Government needs to borrow money to create jobs, the newly employed people can buy stuff, and more people are hired to build this stuff. All of this snowballs, and we are back to GROWTH - Alleluia ! All is for the best in the best possible world.

But...

Do we really need this stuff ? Do I really need a new 30 GB Iphone, , a new car, a new Katana, a cruise to Cancun ?

What if in order to build this stuff the resources of the Planet are overused so much that the ecological systems on which all of humanity and other species depend are dramatically disrupted ? What if people from poorer countries have been reduced to  quasi-slavery to produce it ?

What kind of planet are we going to leave behind us ?  

Do no Evil...

The Economic system our society is based on has little alternative but growth. In order to generate it, Marketing creates new needs and cravings - attachments - for things or services we could really do without. Cereal bars, E-readers, SUV Vehicles, GPS, Boob jobs...

It was okay for a while as long as we were not taxing the resources of the Planet faster than they can renew themselves. but some people believe we have reached the point were growth is not possible anymore. Even if they are mistaken, it is very clear that this point will one day be reached. Problem for the planet.

On an individual level, the creation of these new needs and cravings is simply the root of Suffering for Buddhists. Problem for the individual.

No need to revert back to the cave age. After all, if I did not have this notebook, I could not be writing about this matter, and you could not be reading about it. We need to use the tools we have. We also need to ask ourselves, at our own little individual level : Do I really need this ? Is this really going to contribute something positive to society ? Is this really going to make me more at peace ?

Change will only occur at the individual level. No civilization was ever changed by a group. But by individuals. What we need is a change in personal attitude, we cannot and should not rely on others - everyone has to contribute their own little part. Everyone matters.

It is not going to be easy, but the later we wait, the more difficult and painful it will be.

Let's get  to work 

here, now.

The Truth of Suffering and Modern Psychology

The first Noble Truth taught by the historical Buddha after his enlightenment is about Suffering. "Life is Suffering"
It is sometimes difficult to swallow. After all, there are times when our life is pleasant.

It seems however, that a branch of today's psychology "Relational Frame Theory" agrees with Buddha, and has demonstrated that our Intelligence is set up to memorize dangers and painful stuff rather than pleasant things.

Here is a a translation of an article "L'intelligence verbale" published in French at contextualpsychology.org

I will post more later. This is my own translation, and it is probably not perfect. Still, I found this extremely interesting. Once again, the advances of modern science validate Buddhist insights.

Just as are the speed of the Horse or the length of the Giraffe's neck, Human intelligence is the result of evolution. It has been selected as a survival mechanism that allows visualization of dangers that are not immediately present, the implementation of strategies of anticipation as well as a social organization based on rules which can be orally transmitted.

Intelligence is a tool for survival, not a tool of well being. While it provides the human being with a power unknown to any other living creature, it also afflicts him with a lucidity that can sometimes be very heavy to carry : No matter the advantages and qualities of the place where I presently stand, my intelligence will automatically figure out what its drawbacks are, and suggest the grass is probably greener on the other side of the road.

No matter how good my present situation is, my intelligence is going to establish the list of all the losses I can expect, and the catastrophes that might occur. It operates in this way as a formidable machine designed to spoil the here and now.

Our ability to imagine future or faraway virtual realities as if they were real protects us against dangers we never directly experienced and helps us figure out solutions to complicated problems without having to proceed through multiple trial and error cycles.

Unfortunately we do not have the option to temporarily turn it off just as one can unplug their phone when they want peace. Relational Frame Theory which proposes a scientific approach of the working of human intelligence helps us better understand how.

to be continued