It’s a grey day here in Rhode Island and the news is even worse than last week. There are bright spots all around and resistance is rising. But the level of fear and anxiety is rising in direct proportion to the suffering inflicted.
So it is perhaps fortuitous that we have been spending some time with the seven factors of enlightenment and we are about to launch into the final item in the fourth foundation of mindfulness, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble 8-Fold Path.
Just a quick review, the first foundation is mindfulness of the body, the second is mindfulness of feeling tone of positive, negative, or neutral, the third is mindfulness of mind, and the fourth is mindfulness of dharmas or the way things are. You may remember within mindfulness of dharmas, we touched on the 5 hindrances, the six sense spheres, the 5 aggregates of clinging, and most recently, the seven factors of enlightenment. The final item in the mindfulness of dharmas may be familiar as we have spent some time with it in the past. It is the most important teaching in all of Buddhism and no matter what tradition you hail from, the teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble 8-Fold Path is front and center as the seminal teaching. (Remember, before the time of paper and pens, the Buddha made lists to help the monks remember and recite the teachings.)
What these two teachings show us is that our own happiness is closer at hand than we might imagine. And it is within our grasp regardless of conditions around us. When we turn to the seven factors of awakening, we establish mindfulness by bringing awareness to our breath. That leads us to notice that our mind may be steady or it may be squirrely and we can turn naturally to investigating what is going on. What is the quality of the mind when it is steady? When it is squirrely? Are these forces strong or weak? Can we bring our minds back to our breath or are the forces of agitation overpowering? We investigate our minds. This arouses energy to continue our investigation. And our mindfulness deepens. And the very establishment of mindfulness, of being mindful of the present moment, arouses joy. And if our minds continue in this direction and are not distracted, tranquillity will arise, concentration will follow, and equanimity will become manifest.
The seven factors of awakening are a useful tool for working with our meditation. If the mind is a little dull, we use the arousing factors of mindfulness, investigation and energy which lead to joy. If the mind is agitated or too active, we bring mindfulness to help establish tranquility and concentration which lead to equanimity. Always it starts with mindfulness.
The Four Noble Truths can be a key part of our investigation. The first noble truth is the truth of dukkha - suffering or stress. The Buddha referred to big dukkha and little dukkha. Big dukkha is sickness, pain, extreme weather, fire, war, natural disasters. Little dukkha is not getting what we want, irritation, stress.
The Second Noble Truth says there are causes for stress, suffering. Attachment, grasping, clinging is at the root of all our suffering - wanting things to be other than what they are.
The Third Noble Truth assures us there is an end to suffering, there is a way out of our pain.
The Fourth Noble Truth shows us the path to freedom of suffering which is the Noble 8-Fold Path of wise view, wise intention, wise speech, wise action, wise livelihood, wise effort, wise mindfulness, and wise concentration.
We will delve into this in more depth in the coming weeks. For now, however, it may be useful just to stay with the first Noble Truth - there is suffering. This is so important because we put a great deal of effort into avoiding suffering. Often the struggle against admitting suffering dances just outside our conscious awareness while we maintain our cheerful exterior at great cost to our internal alignment. So, simply acknowledging when suffering exists, when events are not going the way we want, can be a relief. This acceptance doesn’t catastrophize the future but simply accepts that this is what is, this uncomfortable feeling, this pain, this upset, this agitation is just the way it is right now, in this moment.
Sometimes Buddhism gets a reputation for being all about suffering. This is a misunderstanding. Buddhism is about the freedom from suffering and the lasting happiness that is available to us. But it starts with acknowledging when suffering exists. Without that acknowledgment, we can get stuck. A common catch phrase says, what we resist persists. Sometimes just admitting and being with the suffering is enough to allow the clouds to lift and our natural joy and well being to surface.
If we want to look further, we may also investigate the causes of our suffering - the Second Noble Truth - and begin to see the tangle of attachments that keep us enslaved, the constant wanting things to be different - wanting bad things to go away and good things to stay.
We don’t have that kind of control over this thing called life. We can see that central delusion - that we can make good things stay and keep bad things away - being enacted and played out in every level of society from the personal to the national to the world-wide stage. Everyone struggling to make things the way they want and avoid having things any other way.
Seeing that dynamic clearly, into the very depths of every situation of suffering, is cause for compassion to arise, a vast compassion for ourselves and our fellow human beings who are endlessly caught in this struggle to control something none of us can control.
Until we learn to let go…to accept…to allow…. Then we can move into a space of alignment and take action with wisdom. We make the best effort we can without attachment to the outcome. And by letting go of outcomes, we allow for the release of suffering in ourselves and in those around us.