ON LOOKING DEEPLY INTO THE NATURE OF SUFFERING AND PLEASURE

ON LOOKING DEEPLY INTO THE NATURE OF SUFFERING AND PLEASURE

A couple of years back, I got a phone call from a friend who had attended a Dhamma talk where the teacher had said that "life is suffering" is the second noble truth. The friend called up to scoff at the teacher, saying that, of course, everyone knows that that's not the second noble truth, that's the first noble truth. And I had to tell him that it wasn't any noble truth.

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The Buddha never said that life is suffering. He said there is suffering in life. That was his first noble truth. And he identified what that suffering is, but he went on to say that there is a cause for suffering that you can abandon, and there is a path to the end of suffering that you can develop, so that you can reach the end of suffering, all of which can be found in life.

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So As the Buddha once said, if there were no pleasure in the five aggregates, we wouldn't be attached to them. They do offer pleasure. And we need to understand the different kinds of pleasure they offer, so we can use that pleasure as a means to the highest happiness or the highest pleasure: nibbana.

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The Pali word for pleasure and happiness is sukha. It's one of the Buddha's most basic terms, and—as is so often the case with the most central terms in the Buddha's teachings—he doesn't define it. Sukha can be translated as bliss, pleasure, ease, well-being, or happiness. What the Buddha does describe in detail are the different levels of sukha and the different ways that sukha functions. In other words, he describes what's practical to know about sukha so that you can know which kinds of sukha to pursue and which to avoid.

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I think one of the reasons he doesn't define sukha is because, as you practice, your sense of what counts as happiness is going to develop and get more refined. So it's important that your idea of happiness doesn't get nailed down too tightly when you're starting out…

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…So when the Buddha talked about dukkha, suffering or stress, he wasn’t just saying that life is miserable and all you can do is accept the fact. He was saying that there is suffering but it doesn’t have to be there. 

There’s the suffering of the three characteristics, which is inherent in fabricated things. But on top of that is the suffering in the four noble truths, which is caused by craving and clinging. That kind of suffering you can put an end to. And when you put an end to it, the suffering of the three characteristics no longer weighs on the mind because you’ve found something that lies beyond what’s fabricated.

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So the Buddha talked about suffering for the sake of happiness, for the sake of true happiness. He was like a doctor. When you go to see the doctor and he asks you, “Okay, what’s wrong? Where does it hurt?” he’s not being pessimistic. He focuses on your illness because he has a cure. The Buddha described himself as a doctor. He focused on stress and suffering because he had a cure, leading to the health of true happiness.

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Always keep this point in mind as you practice. We’re not here to run away from pleasure. We’re here to see what pleasure really is, and become connoisseurs of pleasure, distinguishing between which kind of pleasure, when you indulge in it, has harmful results, and which kind of pleasure, when you indulge in it, becomes part of the path—so that you can find the ultimate pleasure that doesn’t require indulgence at all. 

It’s just there. That’s what we’re practicing for.

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu

A Connoisseur of Happiness

Meditations 6

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You can read the full article here:

https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/Meditations6/Section0004.html

5 January 2023