"See the end of Suffering"

Suffering, The Self and Society in the 21st Century

Seeing the end of suffering, as a thing, is really very simple. It is my intention to keep simple concepts at the core of these writings. Its not universally best for everyone to write all the information on one page. While all that information may be accurate, it might do more harm than good if it's hard to read and hard to remember. Recalling some complex idea in the midst of a storm is difficult at best and most of the time just adds to the confusion of an already miserable situation.

That said lets get right to it. If I ask you to see the end of a movie you wouldn't have a hard time figuring out what you had to do. You know you would have to stay for the whole movie. Somebody reading this will think that they could leave and come back to catch the end. While this is technically true, is it possible to really see the end of something when you don't know what that something is? Would you know the end of walking a mile if you hadn't walked the mile? The end, as an experience, is not the end without the beginning and middle of the experience as well. Without those ingredients its an idea of a mile walked and you wouldn't have the experience. It's similar to the idea of knowing a thing completely as opposed to knowing something about a thing. Eventually you would have to start at the beginning of the mile and go through it and then you would experience the end. It would then be real to you and you would know you saw the end. It is a grand phenomena these days for people to watch other people go through things. I don't get what the attraction is. In fact I find it kind of weird. All the unreal reality shows are making millions from people who watch other people have experiences. Not even real experiences, just staged. The viewer gets less than nothing. He gets some satisfaction from it somehow, but I don't know what it is. It's putting the right pressure on some wound.

Suffering: The Dreaded Thing

So you're sitting on the couch, watching your favorite commercial and here comes the "dreaded thing" some thought/memory that brings suffering. You don't want to experience the suffering - you want to get into that Tasters Choice ad. But it won't stop. You can't stop thinking about it and now you feel awful and you need to move. Maybe get some popcorn. Yeah, get moving. Do something. The problem is that this uncomfortable, suffering thought movie, is going to run. From start to finish, sooner or later, it's going to get played - and we're going to watch it. From a practical view it would be easier to get it over with. We will otherwise see the trailer over and over, three or four minutes at a time. This could add up to years of viewing and it still won't stop. It doesn't end when we go off where ever we go. It may pause but as soon as we forget, it starts playing again. Sooner or later we're gonna run out of popcorn. So what do we do? It's a movie, watch it. I guarantee that if you watch it you'll get closer to seeing the end. That is - seeing the end of suffering. If you act with courage, at some point, you'll see it.

It probably won't have a big dramatic climax like you'd expect from a "Dreaded Thing" movie. It will probably just sort of fade off and you'll notice it's not playing. Don't worry it's just reloading. It will do this a few more times and pretty soon your reaction will be, "I've seen this...it's not very interesting". Don't worry, there's a bunch more movies in the queue. But by now you are pretty good at this and you will just settle in, knowing that most of these are short films and mainly nonsense.

One of the most important things we can learn in this time we spend on earth is that no structure is permanent. All that we experience has a structure. There are components that make up the structures. The structures can be seen, as with buildings or rivers. Structures can also be felt - as with joy or suffering. It's easy to understand that building are structures. We can see the components used to build them. At any job site you can see stacks of components. Bricks, lumber, sand, pipe etc. Pretty easy to grasp. How about a river? How easy is it to see a river as a structure? The components are smaller. Basically Hydrogen and Oxygen bind together - building - water. How about feelings? What are the components? How about memory - is memory a component of feeling? What if memory is erased? If you had no memory you could watch any cruelty and feel nothing. Without memory life would be meaningless. Here is an awful example. A two week old baby doesn't care about anybody. It may like certain things and dislike certain things - all of these likes and dislikes are physical. If the mother disappeared there would be no emotional reaction. The only thing I might be mistaken about is the two week thing. I don't know exactly when a new human starts to have memories. The reason it doesn't suffer emotionally is because it doesn't know who or what it is, you are, where it's at - or anything else. It is only having physical experiences. Right up to the point of - memories.

If we can see suffering as a silly memory movie we can easier remove suffering from our experience. Like the silly movie idea the idea of suffering, as a whole, is much the same. You can call the suffering whatever you like - pain, fear, anxiety, depression - it's all suffering. They're just words used to communicate to others the world we see and the things we feel. So call it unpleasant or discomfort or confusion. Its good to use a word that has the least amount of historic attachments. Consider that suffering may be linked, in the vast neural network of the brain, to all sorts of terms like hard, difficult, work, strain, impossible....the garden of Eden. There are any amount of connections possible. I have chosen the word nonsense to replace suffering. Anger and fear are nonsense. Jealousy and envy - nonsense. Craving and neediness, longing - nonsense. Anything we experience that we'd rather not - nonsense. I use it a lot when I address the brain. The attachments to the word nonsense are all non threatening and trivial, like nuisance and bother. I would suggest that every one find sillier words to use for things that are not threatening or overwhelming. Life gets instantly easier.

Fear and Suffering

As soon as the memory association is made and suffering is present fear is added. Thia negative energy always, always, makes things worse. We can create anxiety simply by being afraid of the coming suffering. Then we suffer - we suffer from the thought of suffering. So the main picture to develop, the main habit to be formed, is "a lesser reaction to fear". Can I say a lesser reaction is a habit? I guess it would be "over reactions" inverse quality. The benefit of this habit comes when we experience whatever we experience: we instantly know we can do something toward seeing its end. Now we know how to do this. Sit through the movie. The mile starts when the experience starts. We walk along in the experience until it ends. Then we know what it is from start to finish. When you know this it is familiar and no longer as threatening. Remember to have as much fun as possible along the way. There is never a good reason not to enjoy yourself.

There is something else for me to add. If you're movies and suffering are of the more traumatic type, although the format is the same, the setting should probably change. If you have been a serious victim you will need someone to sit through the movie with you. They are waiting for you now. Also there is people like Pema Chodron on the audio page for you.

This page alone is probably not going to be enough to end suffering. There is much more available here. Like I mentioned, the audio section is loaded with helpful people. Basically this entire site - every page is aimed at ending suffering. There's just a lot of changes to be made to transcend suffering. The good news is that it's all physical. It's all about building different structures.

People who can shed light on the subject

Aristotle -- Greek philosopher who enshrined duality and the law of the "excluded middle."
Duality -- The idea that I am who I am, and entirely separate from you.

Nagarjuna -- Indian philosopher who showed that most ideas are neither true, nor not true.
Non-duality -- The non-conceptual view that there is only one of us here in consciousness.

Four-Logic -- My truth together with your truth, where the middle is not excluded.
Madhyamika -- Middle Path of Buddhism emphasizing compassion and surrender to emptiness.

Einstein -- Physicist who felt Quantum Mechanics requires "a ghostly action at a distance."
Locality -- Physical theory that objects and events separated by space or time don't interact.

J. S. Bell -- Physicist who proved that non-locality could be tested for in the laboratory.
Non-locality -- Universal property by which apparently separate items are still entangled.

I want you to know that I don't know if the Buddha was a real guy. I don't know, or care, if Jesus was a real guy. I can't suggest you follow this guy or that guy. I suggest you get as much data as you can from wherever it's offered. Regardless of the source of these passages, they are useful.

"End Of Suffering"

The Buddha's realization of the end of suffering and his attainment of Nirvana at the age of thirty-five, crowed his search for Truth with success. For six years, the Bodhisattva had spared no effort to find a solution to the problems of suffering. He had tried the principal methods of ending suffering and had found them incomplete. Eventually he found his own solutions to the problems of life.

Confidence in the Buddha's Teaching

Having realized the Truth through his own efforts, the Buddha offered it to all that were ready to listen.

There is an old story of a turtle and a fish. The turtle lived on land as well as in the water while the fish only lived in the water. One day, when the turtle had returned from a visit to the land, he told the fish of his experiences. He explained that creatures walked rather than swam. The fish refused to believe that dry land really existed because it was something beyond his own experience. In the same way, people may not have experienced the end of suffering, but it does not mean that the end of suffering is not possible.

A patient must have confidence in an experienced doctor, otherwise he will never take the medicine that the doctor has prescribed and he will not be cured of his sickness. Similarly, people must have confidence in the Teaching of the Buddha, who has shown that end of suffering is really possible.

The End of Suffering

The end of suffering is the final goal of the Buddha's Teaching. It can be experienced by anyone here and now. For example, when greed and anger arise in one's mind, one experiences unhappiness and when the thoughts of greed and anger cease, one's mind becomes happy and peaceful. To end suffering completely one must remove desire, ill will and ignorance. This is the Third Noble Truth of the End of Suffering.

Happiness

The Buddha taught that the end of suffering is supreme happiness. Every step towards the end of suffering is accompanied by ever-increasing joy. Those who follow the Teachings of the Buddha live happily without greed, even among those who are overwhelmed by desire. They live happily without anger, among those who harbor ill will. The more people free themselves from desire, ill will and ignorance, the greater their happiness will be. When they have completely overcome desire, ill will and ignorance, they will know the supreme happiness as experienced by the Buddha.

Enlightenment

By putting the Buddha's Teachings into practice, people can also achieve supreme Enlightenment. Enlightenment has countless qualities, of which perfect wisdom and great compassion are the most important. With perfect wisdom and great compassion we are able to help countless beings to overcome their suffering.

Experiencing Nirvana for Oneself

The end of suffering has been described as supreme happiness and Enlightenment. However, these terms do not fully express the real nature of the end of suffering, or Nirvana. Nirvana cannot be exactly put into words. Attempting to describe Nirvana is like saying that a mango is sweet, but not like a banana or apple. One has to eat a mango in order to know for oneself what it really tastes like. Similarly Nirvana has to experienced for oneself.

Therefore, if people have confidence in the Buddha's Teachings and put them into practice, they can achieve happiness, peace and Enlightenment.

The Crucifix

It's a strange dualistic symbol. Basically, it's a torture instrument. To me, Jesus stands for humanity. So this man is nailed to the torture instrument, totally helpless, in deep suffering. At that point comes total surrender to what is. "Not my will, but thy will be done." At that point, the symbolic significance of the cross is changed from being a torture instrument to a symbol of the divine. So what it points to is that the very thing that seems to stand in the way of realizing who you are. The very suffering that comes with being here in this physical realm---because eventually some form of suffering comes to everybody---can become an opening into that which we call the divine. If you're lucky, disaster comes before the physical form is lost and the psychological form dissolves. This sometimes happens through extreme suffering, when people lose everything, or they find out they don't have much more time to live. So they are faced with extreme disaster which cannot be explained away.

Philosophies collapse in the face of extreme disaster. Before, they might have had philosophy or religious beliefs, but when quite a few people face death of a loved one or their child or spouse, suddenly they question their beliefs. "This wasn't supposed to happen to me, I had a business arrangement with God. I wasn't supposed to suffer." The mind, the "me", collapses. Explanations fade. So you're faced with disaster you cannot explain that seems to deny the existence of something deeper. The cross seems to stand between you and the transcendental dimension to love. But, strangely, that very cross is the opening also.

Somebody once put it this way: "What stands in the way is the way." And you realize that when you no longer internally resist the form that this moment takes. I call it the "is-ness" of this moment.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
Thomas Paine

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Laozi

The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.
Confucius

The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.
Laozi

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
Confucius

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Douglas Adams

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Thomas Paine