Blogs
Noble suffering
This is the first of some thought-experiments on the premises used by the project's 5 introductory sessions. The project has, for it's first intro session the theme of Welcome Everything (its a phrase borrowed from Cunov et al). Welcoming everything involves welcoming not just the good, but also the bad, and the ugly. Lately this has been on my mind a good deal, as i wrestle with various of life's both little and big unpleasantnesses.
For me I'm struck by a sense of contradiction. On one side, we have boundary setting slash context setting, you know, saying what you want. On the other hand, there is just noticing and welcoming all the horror and pain. Especially other peoples bad habits and quirks, the silliness that I would just rather not have in my life :)
In further pondering the rabbit hole of the 'welcome' premise's meaning, it seems to be saying not welcome everything but welcome discomfort. Or even seek discomfort. As biological creatures we seem to be drawn to pleasure and comfort, and repelled by pain and discomfort. I guess it helped us survive through the millennia. But the question is, does discomfort avoidance help us relate? Or grow?
One also cant help but think of the 4 noble truths taught by Buddhism. From which we get this notion that life IS suffering. A basic reread of the teachings tells us that is actually an oversimplification. Life involves suffering, perhaps being a more accurate rendering of the idea.
The Buddha taught four truths -- not one -- about life: There is suffering, there is a cause for suffering, there is an end of suffering, and there is a path of practice that puts an end to suffering. -- Thanissaro Bhikkhu
In the thinking, Welcoming everything does not mean agreeing with everything, nor condoning or supporting things that are just plain bad, and ought to be wholeheartedly rejected. It means staying with a difficult conversation, it means not letting differences destroy our relationships.
AR teaches us that most of the pain we experience is caused by our resistance to it. To welcome everything we are taught to 'presence our struggle'. If we reflexively avoid discomfort in an endless pursuit of pleasure, comfort and happiness, the pain paradoxically follows us around wherever we go.
Instead, by acknowledging our fear, by noticing and welcoming it. By naming it out loud, then, it's said, that the pain will dissipate. This feels hard, and at the same time noble!
The Buddha is not afraid to point out the suffering and stress inherent in places where most of us would rather not see it -- in the conditioned pleasures we cling to. He teaches us not to deny that suffering and stress, or to run away from it, but to stand still and face up to it, to examine it carefully. That way -- by understanding it -- we can ferret out its cause and put an end to it. -- Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Image credit: www.dhammathai.org
Note that views expressed in blogs do not necessarity reflect the views of the Project. They are the blog authors version of truth.
