Most of us want something! We may want happiness, peace, clarity, joy, excitement, enlightenment and so on. We might even want an end to wanting. Buddha taught that we can crystallize this into clinging to four things:
We cling to sense objects/pleasure;
We cling to a self identity;
We cling to some action or behavior that we believe will achieve a desired result;
We cling to views and opinions.
We want and cling to these because deep down we don’t believe we have everything we need already. We don’t believe we already have a perfect life. We think that we must do something in order to find true happiness. We take our “self” too seriously and we are taken in by this illusion of “me and mine”. Let’s first clarify that an illusion isn’t something that doesn’t exist. It exists. It just isn’t what we think it is. Have you ever been hiking and saw the outline of an animal? Perhaps it was a bear or a moose. Maybe it was toward dusk when objects aren’t quite as clear. You looked and saw the animal. You stopped and looked some more. Still it looked like an animal. Then you took a few steps and it became obvious that it was just a stump next to a rock. When we took a few steps we saw more clearly what actually was there. That’s an illusion. It exists, but it’s not what you think. It’s quite different from a mirage or a hallucination which doesn’t exist except in the mind. The Buddha taught that the idea of an independent unchanging permanent self was an illusion.
So if you don’t believe that you have the perfect life and things can be improved then let’s have some fun and create the perfect life. And since we‘re doing this let’s not be confined to a logical reality. Let’s really do it right.
First, let’s assume that each year will be a hundred years (no point in cutting the fun short). And let’s also assume that you can have any kind of life you wish just by pushing a button. So if you’re like most people you might choose a life (a button) where everyone is happy, and the world is peaceful. You have the perfect partner, a job (if you want one), kids (if you want them), and good health. And after a few hundred years this gets boring. So you choose another life. This one probably will have more sense pleasures and a bit more excitement. In fact it may get really exciting. Maybe you climb Mt Everest, K2, or raft the Middle Fork of the Salmon River or the Amazon! But no matter how exciting and dangerous things get you always know that you can save yourself (by pushing another button), because that’s part of your “life” design. And you do this for a few hundred years and it gets boring again. So now you want a life where things are a bit more unpredictable. You might consider one where you can’t be sure about your health, or kids, or your adventures. And this element of uncertainty makes it very exciting. You not only experience joy but sorrow, pain and pleasure as well. You could even die but you know you can stop the life anytime you want and get a new one. So naturally in a few hundred years you’re bored with this life too. Does this ring true for you so far? If yes, then let’s continue.
So you might give this a good bit of thought and you might decide that you want all the excitement, joy, sorrows, and pleasures of the unpredictable life, but this time around you want to forget that it’s only a dream life that you can change. You’ve experienced the other lives where everything was predictable and safe and you decide they just aren’t worth living. You want to really experience life as if it is totally unpredictable and ever changing with all the joys, pleasure, pain, sorrow and yes, even the possibility of death of the body. You give this a lot of thought. And maybe you come to the conclusion that a life just isn’t worth living if it doesn’t have the unpredictability of joys and sorrows, excitement and boredom and the feeling that sometimes it’s completely out of your control. And so you push this last “life button”. Just suppose you did this. After experiencing many kinds of lives that left you unsatisfied you finally got around to picking your “perfect” life. And now look at this life. Doesn’t it look a lot like the life you’re living right now? Maybe that’s exactly what we’re doing here in this life. Maybe it’s all a dream that we’re living and don’t even know it. And maybe it’s not!
The truth is that we are living the perfect life. It’s perfect because it has everything we need to experience complete peace, clarity, joy, and letting go. We have always been here in this perfect life. Where else can we be? The perfect life is the one you’re living right now in this present moment. This life is experienced by this body and mind. All we have to do is notice it; to pay attention to what the mind and body are revealing. Each moment something is being placed before our mind (an object of mind). What do we do? Do we grasp at it? Do we push it away? Do we ignore it? Or can we be aware of this object of mind as arising, manifesting and passing away and resist the desire to somehow make this moment “more” perfect (or complete) than it already is.
In a beautiful Sutta the Buddha says we have all we need to find complete fulfillment right here in this “fathom long body”.
AN 4.45
Rohitassa Sutta: To Rohitassa
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
This sutta also appears at Samyutta Nikaya 2.26
On one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Savatthi, in Jeta’s Grove, Anathapindika’s monastery. Then Rohitassa, the son of a deva… went to the Blessed One. On arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, he stood to one side. As he was standing there he said to the Blessed One: “Is it possible, lord, by traveling, to know or see or reach a far end of the world where one does not take birth, age, die, pass away or reappear?”
“I tell you, friend that it is not possible by traveling to know or see or reach a far end of the world where one does not take birth, age, die, pass away, or reappear.
But at the same time, I tell you that there is no making an end of suffering & stress without reaching the end of the world.
Yet it is just within this fathom-long body, with its perception (body) & intellect (mind) that I declare that there is the world, the origination of the world, the cessation of the world, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of the world.”
It’s not to be reached by traveling,
To the end of the world…
And it’s not without reaching
The end of the world
That there is release
From suffering & stress.
So, truly, the wise one,
An expert with regard to the world,
A knower of the end of the world,
Having fulfilled the holy life, calmed,
Knowing the world’ end, doesn’t long for this world
Or for any other.
One can take the literal meaning of the word “world” in this Sutta. Many people feel the need to travel to the ends of the world, find the Tibetan Yogi, a guru, live in an Ashram, go on many retreats or even create their own world of spiritual beliefs. There’s nothing wrong with this but be careful. Buddha says here that it’s not necessary. Everything you need is right here in front of our nose. We don’t need to go anywhere.
The word “world” in Pali (the language of the Buddha) is Loka. It has several meanings but one is not the material world but the experienced world, the visible and perceived world. The “world as a “loka” is a constructed world which emerges out of our interaction with our senses and sense objects.
Another way to understand this Sutta is to take the word “world” in a less literal sense. Let me suggest that the “world’ that we most often experience is the world created by the five objects of a clinging mind. The Buddha often used the word “world” to mean the world we create out of these five focuses of clinging to form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and sense consciousness. If we see this Sutta from that standpoint it takes on a rich new meaning.
Yet it is just within this fathom-long body, with its perception (body) & intellect (mind), that I declare that there is the world (of form, feeling, perception, mental formation, and sense consciousness), the origination of the world (of form, feeling, perception, mental formation and sense consciousness), the cessation of the world (of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and sense consciousness), and the path of practice leading to the cessation of the world (of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and sense consciousness).”
He’s telling us to pay attention!! The unsatisfactoriness that arises from greed, hatred and Ignorance is experienced in our body and mind. Pay attention to this.
The First Noble Truth says Suffering should be understood i.e. experienced. And where else can this happen but in our body and mind?
The Second Noble Truth says that the cause of suffering should be abandoned. And where does this abandonment occur?
The Third Noble Truth states that Cessation of Suffering is to be realized. Where else can we realize this end to suffering but in our mind and body?
The Fourth Noble Truth states that the path to the end of suffering should be followed. The path is one of ethics, concentration, and wisdom. Isn’t the path one of body and mind?
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Gospel of Mark.
“Don’t gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold…” Bob Marley
So we don’t have to search for the perfect life. We don’t have to dream about the perfect life. We don’t have to arrange the perfect life and we don’t have to beat ourselves up because we don’t have the perfect life. All have to do is live this life. All we have to do is pay attention to body and mind in this present moment. Living in this moment with awareness is the last life button we’ll ever have to push.
May you be well, happy and peaceful.
Floyd
