How to be Content Here and Now
By following the Four Noble Truths
Have you ever felt dissatisfied with life? Do you find happiness elusive? Have you ever wondered what’s the point of it all?
Then you are suffering from one of the most common diseases on planet earth: Dissatisfaction or Dhukka, as Buddhists call it.
You probably think that happiness is just around the corner, that once you get that job, that house, or that relationship everything will fall into place. But deep down you know that it’s not the case.
Whatever you achieve, experience or fulfill will be old news as soon as you get it, and then you’ll be chasing the next goal, the one that’ll make everything perfect…yet again!
You could keep chasing that elusive rabbit until you drop dead, most people do, or, you can realize the futility of such pursuit.
This is the Buddhist way
2500 years ago after a long ordeal of soul searching Buddha came out with 4 principles to live a proper life. These became known as the 4 Noble Truths.
Lately, it has become trendy to follow some of these principles in the west. The reason behind this can probably be explained by our need to find solace and peace in a world that is changing too fast. Too much pressure to perform, to achieve, and to become the best.
You don’t have to become a Buddhist to follow this philosophy, in fact, most people don’t. These ideas are popular among atheists, agnostics, Christians, and believers of other religions too. It’s not incompatible to be a devoted catholic and follow the Dharma for instance.
The most powerful tool in the Buddhist arsenal is meditation, and it has become very popular. In a world that has lost religion, meditation is spreading like wildfire.
We are spiritual beings after all, and even in the absence of God we still feel the need to connect with something that is bigger than us.
The Four Noble Truths
1. Life is suffering
This first truth needs better branding, however, it is true, and denying this truth will create even more suffering.
Not only you have the usual culprits — sickness, death, poverty, loneliness, stress, etc. Even in the absence of them, there is dissatisfaction, routine, mundane tasks, disappointment, jealousy, unremitted love, and so on. Like someone said, life is shit and then you go and die.
It might appear, judging by the first noble truth that Buddhism is nihilistic but that’s not the case. In order to end suffering, you must be aware of it happening, otherwise you’ll be hiding behind the wall of denial.
If you think about it, life is 99% mundane and 1% joy, with ratios like that, is it worth living?
The answer is yes, but we need to look at the problem from a different perspective.
2. The root of suffering is desire
We are always looking for something. Whether is love, sex, money, luxury, comfort, or safety we are always chasing the next thing, and the moment we get it we chase something else.
It’s quite obvious that chasing pleasure or material things won’t make us happy, once we have our basics covered. Yet we keep falling for it. This is what psychologists call the hedonistic trap — once you get what you want, you get used to it and it becomes the new normal.
But could we live in a world without desire?
Not really, but the point here is to realize that fulfilling desires won’t make you happy, and being aware of the mental process behind desires give us a clue about how to tame them.
Here is the great breakthrough from Buddha: being aware of your own thinking process is the key to stopping suffering.
Here in the west, we identify ourselves with our minds. We believe we are mostly rational and make sensible decisions that lead us to a balanced life.
Nothing is further from the truth.
Neuroscience has only begun to realize that we are not rational beings. Inside our heads, there are several identities competing for power. What we call “I” is just a delusion, a mental construct.
There is no ‘I’, just a turmoil of unconnected signals that mix and match and fill the gaps in order to create a narrative that brings the illusion of self.
Buddha discovered this 2500 years ago, now science is finally catching up.
Basically, when you want it’s not you have the desire, it’s your ego.
But, what is the ego? And how did it get in my head?
The ego is a byproduct of the rational mind, an entity that aims for separation instead of communion. Becoming one with the universe is the ultimate Buddhist ideal and the ego is there to boycott that goal.
Your ego is your worst enemy. Its aim is self-preservation, it’s greedy, fearful, lazy, and jealous.
It’s the worst version of you.
Among other things, your ego fears change especially positive change. Every time you try to become better, to improve yourself, to lose weight, or to quit smoking your ego will react against change. If you manage to pull it off, part of your identity dies, and your ego suffers. That’s why it’s mission is to derail any attempts of improvement.
3. To stop suffering you have to stop desire
Desire is created by the ego. To stop desire you must confront your ego and the best tool to achieve that is meditation.
When you meditate, that little voice in your head that is constantly pestering you goes quiet. At that moment you are free from the ego and free from desire.
The point of meditation is to quiet that voice and to observe your thinking process from the outside. That eventually dissolves the impulse to react and brings peace and contentment.
Your ego is a powerful enemy and meditation is its biggest threat so it’ll use any trick in the book to try and sabotage your concentration.
The same way a drug dealer doesn’t want you to quit, your ego doesn’t want you to meditate.
Meditation is hard but is the only way to break the illusion of the self, to starve the ego, and to have a chance to live a content and balanced life.
If you close your eyes right now and concentrate on your breathing even for just a few seconds, you’ll find peace. That’s already a small victory. Keep doing it every day for a few minutes and your mental health and level of happiness will improve.
Another benefit of meditation is to bring you to the present moment. Instead of living in the past or worrying about the future, meditation brings you to the now, which is the only thing that is real.
As Eckhart Tolle says in The Power of Now: Have you ever experienced anything outside the now?
We are trapped in the now and yet we try to live in the past and the future. Happiness is always around the corner and the past keeps bringing bad memories.
There is only now, the moment you truly understand this you are liberated from the chains of time.
4. To stop desire you must follow the eightfold path
This 8th truth provides a more down to earth, practical approach to how to behave. It consists mostly of common sense advice about ethics. Right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
Most of the noble truths are similar to the message that can be found in other major religions — be good and help others.
To do the right thing is, of course, important but somehow Buddhism has managed to find the perfect tool to achieve mastery over the mind.
You can’t live a good life unless you are aware of your own actions and thoughts. As much as you can, you should observe your mind and determine where your thoughts ideas, desires, and fears come from. You must separate what is real from what is not.
Being aware is difficult that’s why we engage in arguments, react, indulge, and hide. Most people live a reactive life full of fear and deeply unhappy.
To escape from the mental prison you have created you must realize that the world is just an illusion and the only way to see reality is by waking up to what is real.
Conclusion
Life is suffering because you are making it that way. By practicing mediation and awareness, you can wake up to a new reality, a world where material possessions or early desires are just a means to an end and not the end itself.
You can wake up from your delusion and come back to the now where we are all interconnected, where there is no you and me, only we. And that’s a very good way to live your life.