Unit 3/ essay 2

January 31, 2011

Thich Nhat Hanh writes, “Pain is inevitable, but sufferings is optional.” Explain the difference between pain and suffering. Why would Hanh want to send his children to a place where there is suffering?

For a measure of clarity let us begin on the same foot. I would like to present three definitions for three common words used in our language. The first, pain, is defined as: physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury. To what extent pain is inevitable is based on an individual's or groups threshold to withstand physical, mental or spiritual sensation. The second, suffering, is defined as: to experience or be subjected to something bad or unpleasant. Suffering therefore deals more with the psyche and emotions, and as something that one chooses to experience. Although suffering could also deal physical pain, Thich Nhat Hanh (which I will shorten to TNH through out the essay) defines suffering as ill-being. He says, ill-being can be desecribed in terms of “violence, discrimination, hate, jealousy, anger, craving and especially ignorance.” The main difference between the two words is while pain often deals with a temporary sensation, suffering can be an on going state of being. The last word I'd like to define is compassion. To clarify, it is thought of as a sympathetic pity (feeling sorrow) and concern for the suffering or misfortunes of others. i.e.: pity, sympathy, empathy,fellow feeling, care, concern, solicitude, sensitivity, warmth, love,tenderness, mercy, leniency, tolerance, kindness, humanity, charity for self and others.

Buddha spoke about the Four Noble Truths as a path toward understanding, compassion, and ultimately, wisdom. In order stay to the path TNH says we must know what suffering really is. We must take a deep look into its nature and try not to run away from it. Perhaps the ill-being will be touching upon our habits, patterns or conditioned thoughts. The very things we want to identify with, but the very things that keep us ignorant. TNH says “thanks to suffering you have a chance to cultivate your understanding and your compassion.” Without it we could not grow, we could not learn, we could not know how to be compassionate! “That is why it is the noble truth.” He says we should not allow suffering to overwhelm us. If we know how to look deeply into suffering and learn from it, we will know the wisdom and have the understanding to see things more clearly, perhaps even as they really are.

If suffering was a invasive, destructive weed, then ignorance would be its roots. In order to kill it, we would need to discover not only its roots, but the nature of its existence. Why and how it got into our garden and what do we do take it out, and keep it from coming back. Only then, “we could discover the path that leads to well-being”. TNH says, You cannot follow the second noble path (the cessation of suffering) until you understand the path before it (suffering being the starting point).

The idea that life should only be happy is not what Buddhism is trying to say. “Many Buddhists believe that in the Land of the Buddha there is no suffering. This is dualistic thinking.” But how is that dualistic thinking? If it is a polarity “ the state of having two opposite or contradictory tendencies, opinions, or aspects” or a duality “an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something; a dualism” which both imply opposition, how can the belief of the absence of one thing, be dualistic? Because it is oppositional thinking. It wants to negate one form for another. Or does it? They want to negate suffering into happiness without acknowledging the existence and necessary need for it. Without suffering there would be no happiness. TNH says “(duality) goes against the wisdom of Buddhism, the wisdom of inter-being.” Inter-being is not duality because one form requires the another. Left needs right, night needs day, top needs bottom, to be have its specific identity. But this is just a play on words. Whether you say duality, polarity or inter-being, I think the important point to understand is that we cannot have one form without the other if we want to label and categorize things.

I like this metaphor TNH gives:

“A garden should have both garbage and flowers. A gardener knows how to handle the garbage in order for the flower to be protected and grow. In order to grow vegetables you need compost. If you are an organic gardener you know that you don’t need to throw the garbage away. Garbage is organic, and with the garbage you can make compost and nourish the flowers and vegetables. Suffering is also organic. If you know this you can transform suffering into well-being. This is the Buddha’s teaching of non-duality.”

So the key is transformation! Transforming one form into the other, rather than negating or suppressing its existence.

TNH says, “I would never want to send my children to a place where there is no suffering, because in such a place they would have no chance to learn how to understand and to be compassionate.” But, we are living in a world where suffering is multiplying and taking on new form after form. We are no longer dealing with simply transforming organic wastes into productive gardens. What about the use of pesticides, herbicides and other toxins? What kind of suffering do the toxic chemicals that leech into our water ways and pollute ecosystems and air particles, represent? What about the synthesized, technologically inorganic materials that bombard and destroy even the healthiest gardens.

Since everything is inter-connected, we must look not only after our own gardens, garbage and weeds, but the roots, and aquifers, and natural systems of our neighbors too. What one neighbor does 3 miles up stream on his own property plays a significant role in our personal space as well. How one person projects suffering to millions, is how that person projects suffering to everything.

But TNH reassures us that it is by touching this kind of suffering, and understanding the gravity and depth of suffering, that we have a chance to understand people and their suffering. Because of that understanding we start to know what it means to be compassionate. “A place where there is no understanding and compassion is hell.” Perhaps some have already taken our lot there.

In order to be equipped for the jealousy, violence, hatred, discrimination, cravings, ignorance and inconsideration in our world, TNH believes if we practice compassion and grow in our understandings, we will not suffer; we will actually be protected. Perhaps that is why he would send his children to a place of suffering. For them to learn what it is, and then from that knowledge they would be safe and lead a life where they could help others. You would become a “Bodhisattva, a teacher of understanding and compassion, helping people learn to how to be more understanding and compassionate... You would be the organic gardener.” But, is this too hopeful? Too naive and idealistic in today’s world? Or does the power of the spirit take on obstacles and truly heal in the face of the hardest adversity?

Victims are victims of discrimination and ignorance. “You are living in such a way that you can help them remove and transform their victimhood (ignorance) into something productive.” TNH says cravings and anger stem from ignorance. Sadly the people in power are actually craving companionship, wisdom and connection but settle on something they can control without really looking into themselves or growing up. Therefore, the job up for us, the children, is ultimately, healing work. To live with courage in the face of hatred, to lessen our egos, lower our shields, and invite people to walk barefoot through our gardens. To deeply hear others perspectives and how they have been wronged, then, TNH says that compassion (i.e. the sympathy, empathy, fellow feeling, care, concern, sensitivity, warmth, love, tenderness, mercy, tolerance, kindness, charity and humanity) would sprout and grow for our selves and others.

Nhat Hanh, Thich. Darma, Color and Culture. New Voices in Western Buddhism. Ed. Hilda Gutierrez Baldoquin. 61-73. Berkeley: Parallax Press. Print.