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I also wanted to make sure that we don't stop with the first noble truth. Taken together, the four noble truths teach that there is suffering, there is a cause of suffering, there is an end to suffering, and there is a path of practice that leads there. The Buddha said he taught suffering and the end of suffering. Before I finished talking, I said that I'd talk some more about suffering this week. That's the 60 second review of what I said last week.
Later on, I almost regretted having said that. I thought maybe I should talk about something else and I was sure that people would be willing to let me change my mind that way. But first I thought I should look a little more closely at where this desire to change the subject came from.
You see before you a white man who was born in the United States shortly after the end of the second world war. There are few people in the world who have had the privileges and opportunities that come from just that. My parents had lived through the great depression of the 1930's and even though we never considered ourselves rich, we were never lacking for the basic comforts and necessities of life. How dare I talk about suffering? I tell you a story about how my girlfriend dumped me and call that suffering. Ridiculous! I should be ashamed.
Meanwhile, there are millions of people who don't have enough to eat who can't protect their children who are the victims of violence sometimes even inside their own homes, and these people have done nothing to deserve this. How can someone like me possibly have anything authentic to say about suffering?
A few years ago one of my co-workers was a white man who had been born and raised in South Africa. His family owned a shoe manufacturing company and they were fairly well off. When he learned that I was involved in Buddhist practice he wanted to talk with me about his background. He told me that ever since he was a young child he had been haunted by one question: How was it that he had been born to such privilege and so many around him had not? Why? And how could he live with the shame and guilt he felt as if this were something that he had done intentionally. I think he came to Canada to try to escape the shame and guilt he felt every day living in South Africa in the days of apartheid. He still felt guilty and ashamed, but perhaps it was easier to bear when it wasn't so much in his face. He hoped I could somehow help him to make sense of all this.
A friend here in Puerto Vallarta once asked me how Buddhist practice could help people who were suffering. He noticed that most of the people at retreats are fairly privileged They can afford the fees and they can afford to take the time away from their jobs and families. He wondered where the place was for all of the people who did not have these resources.
I don't know the answer. I don't know if there is anyone who does know the answer. I know that the organizers of many retreats do their best to arrange scholarships and other ways to support attendance by people who wouldn't be able to attend otherwise. And I know that just because someone seems well off that doesn't meant that they haven't suffered or aren't suffering. But I don't think saying that either of those facts resolves the question.
I have no idea how I came to be the son of a middle class white American couple and not the daughter of a homeless prostitute in a third world country. Do I have some responsibility because of my privileged background? I don't know. I know I feel some responsibility, but I don't know if it has anything at all to do with my privilege I know that it would be wrong to feel superior or proud of my privilege, but I think it would also be wrong to feel guilty or ashamed.
There are Buddhist teachings that tell us that a bodhisattva will take whatever form is necessary in order to awaken beings. For some, this might be a beggar or a thief, and for others a wealthy benefactor. For some a doctor or a teacher, for others a child or someone with AIDS. Without suffering, how would we learn about compassion? Without ignorance and delusion, what would stimulate us to develop wisdom or pursue awakening? Once I had a kind of waking vision in which it occurred to me that every being on earth is offering exactly what they should be offering. For some, the only thing they have to give is their need and suffering. Without their need and suffering there would be no place for offerings of compassion and kindness. Is one kind of offering better or greater than the other? Perhaps it is everyone's responsibility to give themselves to the world, no matter what their situation is. If you have a lot of suffering, offer it to the world. If you have the capacity to help, offer it.
This sounds pretty and ideal, but in the relative world it is often difficult or impossible. Actually, the world is impossible. And yet here we are. The only thing that comes to me right now is to ask you all to help me respond and live with this impossibility. I will do my best to do the same for you. And when either or both of us stumble and fall, I hope we can forgive each other and help each other back up again.
It might sound like I'm saying that suffering is noble and spiritual and therefore not so bad. I don't mean to say that at all. It's terrible. It's terrible and wherever we come across it we should not turn away. Whenever we can we should do our best to offer some relief.
I have a huge amount of respect for the Zen Peacemakers Order, founded by Roshi Bernie Glassman. There are three basic tenets for this order. The first is Not-knowing, penetrating the unknown, giving up fixed ideas about ourselves and the universe. The second is Bearing witness to the joy and suffering of the world. Roshi Bernie says, “When I bear witness, I learn, I open to what is. There's a healing process in that.” And the third tenet is Loving actions toward ourselves and others. In not-knowing, we return to the source. When we renounce taking a fixed position, our bearing witness enables us to become intimate with everything. Out of this intimacy comes a loving response that leads to healing. But we can't carry this with us. We can't take what happened yesterday and stick to it. In the next encounter, in every encounter, we are challenged to let go of our fixed ideas, bear witness and then respond.
I am asking us to help each other. No-one can do this alone.
Thank you for listening.
© 2006, Burai Rick Spencer