One of the hardest question I get asked is "What is Buddhism
about?" My own journey has been through personal development, some
philosophy, psychotherapy and then into Buddhism. For me right now
Buddhism is about finding a better way to live my life and come to
grips with what doesn't work for me, at the same time finding ways
I can be of service to other sentient beings. While we westerners
might see it as taming the ego, Buddhists see it as a more active
process called Mind Training.
Buddhist
philosophy deals with the suffering created through our grasping at
the concept of a separate and unique Self and the release from
suffering in the ultimate reality of Non-Self. But that, like
Emptiness, is a topic for further down the path.
The
initial teachings deal with a whole bunch of issues we experience
as human beings, many of which we are totally unaware or which
totally consume us. The labels are familiar – anger, greed,
craving, fear, avoidance, procrastination – on and on it goes.
If we
choose to go down the Mahayana path, what we are choosing is to
rediscover within ourselves a nature of loving kindness and
compassion towards all sentient beings. It is through this we move
towards the path of the bodhisattvas, working for the benefit of
all sentient beings, and ultimately realising our own inherent
Buddha nature.
In my
initial years I was confused by the terminology. Were my problems
the result of afflictions, poisons, obstructions or illusions? How
many were there – 3? 5? 7? 84,000? How could I overcome them if I
didn't know and understand what they were and how they applied to
me? Then I came across teachings that talked about the 3, 5, 7, 10
or 84,000 antidotes to the afflictions. More confusion!
It came
as a great relief to me one day to realise that I really only had
to deal with three labels. Ignorance, Attachment and Aversion.
Ignorance can be summarised as "We don't know what we don't know!"
The teachings are all aimed at gradually expanding our
understanding of what is suffering, how we create our suffering and
the paths available to us to address these conditions and move
towards happiness. The fundamental Mahayana objective is the
establishment of loving kindness and compassion as the basis of how
we live our daily lives for the benefit of others. Dispelling
ignorance is achieved by leading us to understand the afflictions
or poisons of attachment and aversion.
I
started to better understand attachment when I came to realise that
there are many different ways we can experience it. Common labels
are greed, craving, desire, selfishness. We may be attached to a
desire for a variety of material things – cars, houses, objects.
Then there are attachments to relationships or a desire to be
admired or loved. Or we may become attached to an idea – "my
religion is the only true religion" or "my race is the only worthy
race". The suffering we experience manifests in many ways. When we
don't have something, we suffer until we get it – and when we have
it, we suffer in case we lose it. Resistance to change is a symptom
of attachment. You can even have an attachment to having no
attachments in that you may feel pride in your achievement and
become attached to that pride.
By the
way, there is a reason why you wouldn't get a Buddhist to vacuum
your carpets – they don't vacuum in the corners because they have
no attachments!
Likewise
for aversion. Aversion manifests itself as anger, revulsion,
hatred, dislike, fear and even indifference. Resistance to change
is again a major indication that aversion may be playing a role in
your life.
So – how
can we apply the understanding that our suffering is generally
about attachment or aversion? It is thought that in the process of
getting through our busy days, 95% of the time we are in a neutral
state, neither experiencing attachment or aversion. Seems to be
somewhat a waste of time- or even a lifetime?
The first
step is being open to awareness. If you are experiencing disturbing
feelings, work out whether it is a form of attachment or aversion.
If this is not clear, then sit with it, meditate on it, until it
becomes clearer.
Once
identified, you can then contemplate or meditate on what you have
been taught on how to deal with it. For example, an antidote for
greed is generosity. When you become aware that your current
disquiet has an undercurrent of greed, contemplate or commit to an
act of generosity. It may be a prayer for the happiness of all
beings, a simple act of kindness or the giving of an offering of
flowers or incense or a material gift. As you do this, observe what
it is about that transformation from greed to generosity that makes
you happier or eases the intensity of your suffering.
Repeated
awareness of the nature of how you experience attachment and
aversion and how you can transform those experiences to experiences
of loving kindness and compassion will accumulate as training of
the mind.
To use
an expression I have heard, it is about habituation. We make a
habit of practicing awareness and a habit of applying the antidote.
Over time we habituate the practice of loving kindness and
compassion. The afflictions of attachment and aversion are slowly
shaken loose and we become more content in our circumstances as
they are. The happiness we thus experience is real and lasting.
Keeping
it simple should make it easier to focus on the awareness and
practice, and not get caught up in trying to understand everything
from the start.
http://askabuddhist.blogspot.com/2009/07/three-afflictions-ignorance-attachment.html