Buddhism
Just Cos it’s Happening Doesn’t Mean it’s Happening to You.
‘Grasping’ in the Buddhist Tradition isn’t what you think
I am not enlightened. The following article is a series of ideas that have spewed forth from my crazy mind. They should not be taken as spiritual advice but only as food for contemplation. If you seek a spiritual path, please look for the guidance of a fully-realised master — not a sharp-tongued lizard-like myself.
When people read about the Buddha’s second noble truth, they assume that Buddha’s message has something to do with cake.
They assume that you suffer because you quite fancy a slice of cake and that the way to overcome that suffering is to deny yourself the cake.
People see monks giving up cake, and they think the Buddhist path is about denial, but it isn’t. Monks use this discipline of avoidance on a particular path of Buddhism. But it’s just a single method among many.
The Buddhas second noble truth is about the origin of suffering. To say that the origin of suffering is that you find cake delicious (craving) is to dull down the profound revelation of the second noble truth.
The concept of grasping as the cause of dukkha is concerned with an assumed identification with phenomena.
Do you remember the orientation at the start of your life? Do you remember the Doctor with the grey beard doing his slideshow presentation on reality?
No? That’s because he wasn’t there. There was no orientation.
No one is there to tell us how things naturally are, so we run with our karma because it is the most straightforward running partner.
It’s what we know.
When you go to the toilet, you wipe your butt, you flush the toilet, and maybe you even wash your hands. You don’t have to think about these things since they are ingrained.
That is karma
So phenomena appear. But who told you that this phenomenon was you?
A knife cannot cut itself because it is itself.
Your eye cannot see itself without a mirror.
So, if you can observe your body and thoughts, how can they be you?
The body is there, but who said it was your body?
The thoughts are there, but who told you they were your thoughts?
When you watch a movie, you can grieve when someone passes away, and you can be afraid when a serial killer breaks into a house. You can enjoy these emotions because you are not the central character. You watch them happening, but you take pleasure from them because they are not happening to you.
But what if you forgot that you were sitting on a couch watching a movie?
What if you believed you were the central character in the movie and that a serial killer was really out to get you? Would you still be able to enjoy these emotions?
When you observe your body, feelings, and thoughts, you are no longer possessed by them. That’s why this simple act of awareness lifts us out of ignorance — grasping.
It’s hard to see that the actual situation we are experiencing is one where we are simply observing them as if on a television screen.
But who is the one that is watching?
It’s hard to stay in this state of awareness long enough to answer this question because our karma is powerful.
Karma is like a habitual wind that blows us in a specific direction. The more we move in that direction, the more the wind blows us back there again.
It’s pretty much like Youtube — the more you watch videos of people walking in the rain, the more the wind of Youtube takes you there again and again.
In this case, the karmic wind blows us into identifying with our thoughts, body and emotions and the aggregate of these now-possessed factors becomes this notion of a truly existing central character, aka ego.
Meditation is not hanging out in flappy clothes with whale noises and candles.
It is the process of looking closely and understanding how things are.
You would think it is easy, but it isn’t. It isn’t easy because of karma — in this case, the karma that continuously blows us into our vortex of assumed identification with phenomena.
If it was enough to just know this information, there would have been no need for the Buddha to teach any further.
But, it isn’t enough.
And it’s why the work of Dharma is long and hard.
Not because the truth is complex. Not because it takes us years to understand some vastly sophisticated philosophy behind life.
It’s because our habits are so ingrained.
But still, if we are fortunate, have a sharp mind and look at precisely the right time, in the right circumstance, we might get a glimpse and see that things appear, but there is no truly existing central character.
It’s why a single moment of knowledge can reveal the whole universe as nothing more than a cosmic play.
It’s just a play. But we can’t accept this. We think that the ultimate meaning of life has to be serious. Surely.
It’s just a play. And, the difference between an eternity of suffering and an eternity of playful bliss is just a hair’s breadth of perception.
It’s just a play. But isn’t playfulness reserved for children? Surely it doesn’t apply to us adults, right?
Sign up for my free newsletter. That’s where I put all the really good stuff.
