From Turning the Wheel of Truth: Commentary on the Buddha's First
Teaching
Ajahn Sucitto
tricycle
When there is understanding and a set of values that
encourage sharing, then the limitations, the needs, and the lacks
of any given life can be acknowledged and effort can be put into
using material supports with compassion. This is also true in cases
of deprivation; surely a major contributor to this is the greed and
exploitation of others, which has its source in identification with
material prosperity. If we could all accept the experience of
limitation on our resources and comforts, if affluent people’s
standard of living were not so high, there would be fewer people
who felt, and actually were, “poor.” Maybe with more sharing, there
would be less severe physical deprivation. Instead of creating golf
courses in the desert, or seeing air-conditioning, two cars, and
countless television channels as necessities of life, we could try
to accept limitations to our material circumstances and acknowledge
that there is suffering.
This acknowledgment doesn’t require that everyone
should feel wretched; rather, it’s a matter of learning to know and
accept that this earthly realm is one of limitation. When we wake
up to how human life on this planet actually is, and stop running
away or building walls in our heart, then we develop a wiser
motivation for our life. And we keep waking up as the natural
dukkha [suffering] touches us. This means that we sharpen
our attention to catch our instinctive reactions of blaming
ourselves, blaming our parents, or blaming society; we meditate and
access our suffering at its root; and consequently we learn to open
and be still in our heart. And even on a small scale in daily life
situations, such as when we feel bored or ill at ease, instead of
trying to avoid these feelings by staying busy or buying another
fancy gadget, we learn to look more clearly at our impulses,
attitudes, and defenses. In this way dukkha guides and deepens our
motivation to the point where we’ll say, “Enough running, enough
walls, I’ll grow through handling my blocks and lost
places.”