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Venerable Ajahn Sucitto -
Fundamental Happiness
Although the Buddha taught for forty-five years, he said that there was a vast
range of things that he understood but had not taught. And why had he not taught
them? Because they were not necessary to know to bring about the understanding
that he valued most highly: that there is an unsatisfiable quality to the way an
ordinary person experiences
their life, and that dissatisfaction can be eradicated. In brief, that a human
being can experience a sustaining sense of well-being or happiness that is not
dependent on circumstances. The Buddha's intention was not to create a religion,
nor to accumulate a great number of disciples, but to help those who wished to
be helped towards the simple goal of well-being. No-one needs to be "converted"
to this cause, because, if we reflect on it, it is already what we seek through
various spritual and material pursuits. In fact, the Buddha encouraged people
not to follow his advice without testing it against their own experience. It is
only through questioning and establishing our own certainties that we can
realise the truth that grants us this "independent" happiness. If we believe, or
disbelieve, blindly, then we are depending on a set of assumptions about what we
should or might be, the way we think the world is, or what we hope ( or dread)
happens to us when we die.
When we examine it, we may recognise that most of our reality is made up of
assumptions. We assume we inhabit a physical body that we will leave at the
moment of death; but actually where in the body do "I" dwell? If you open up a
body, you don't find anyone in there! Nor can this "interior person" see inside
the body, although they experience themselves sometimes as a subject, creating
thoughts and moods, and sometimes as an object receiving a wide range of sensory
impingement. Although trapped in this position, the "interior person" is
incapable of assuring that this continual inflow and outflow is pleasant,
interesting or manageable. This is a major source of
tension, need, and disappointment.
What a Buddha knows is that this particular "I" is impossible to satisfy: even
if pleasant input can be sustained, eventually it becomes boring. In fact the
whole sense of pleasure rests on one of two transient modalities of experience:
that "I" am either carried
along and united with what is pleasing, or that "I" am separated from what is
unpleasing. However when one's consciousness unites with what is pleasant, it
can no longer have the space which allows it to relish the pleasure, and it
needs to have more pleasure. A lot of our apparent pleasure is bound up with the
anticipation of the pleasure that we are about to have, or the memory of past
pleasure. On the ther hand, unpleasant things keep happening to us, however hard
we try to protect ourselves from them; and the effort to maintain security and
comfort itself becomes unpleasant. Lasting happiness does not seem to come
through having pleasure or avoiding displeasure; in fact can happiness be found
in anything which this sense of "I", with its needs and judgements, experiences.
We may find ourselves objecting to this attitude as being negative. Because we
have rarely, if ever, experienced anything without the sense of "I", we can only
feel depressed when the realm of "my" experience is apparently dismissed. But
the Buddha teaches the way to happiness, in this life, with a body and feelings
and thoughts – but without the sense of "I". Basically this comes about through
a way of living, and a way of steadying and strengthening the mind. The
experience of the Buddha was that we don't have to destroy "I": in the same way
that a mirage disappears when the conditions supporting it disappear, so the
sense of "I" - in fact having no more solidity than a mirage - disappears when
the conditions supporting it are no longer created. It is like a profound
relaxation or rest ( he called it "stopping") which gives the mind the calm of a
still pool, and also its wonderful sensitivity.
This requires quite a transformation of our habits, and possibly many years of
practice. How do we know whether all this is true or possible? Try it out for a
few days - the practice epitomises the qualities of the goal. Even when we have
not achieved that profound release that the Buddha pointed to, if we find uplift
from the practice, we can have some confidence certain that the Path fits our
aspirations.
The happiness of the practice, and of the goal, can be summarised as having
three aspects: the happiness of one's good actions, the happiness of one's own
clarity and calm, and the happiness of one's understanding. If one acts with a
pure mind, with honesty, gentleness and love, then one will live free from
regret. One will have good friends, and one will trust and respect oneself.
Whether fortune or misfortune visits us, we have a source of happiness that is
free from the changes of the world. Secondly, if one learns to train the mind
through meditation to be one-pointed, to calm down, and to be fully receptive to
both the things that occur and the consciousness within which they occur, the
result is the same kind of happiness. Instead of being thrown around, now here,
now there, now excited, now bored, now depressed, the mind can live in its own
balance. It has strength and an inner quiet that can take us through life's
changes.
But the greatest kind of happiness comes through understanding. Having made the
mind steady, we can examine the inner sources of our need and anxiety. A mind
that has been trained in terms of attention and calm recognises that all the
latent sources of dissatisfaction are created out of trying. Trying to make up
for the past, trying to make the future secure, trying to find something, trying
to get rid of something, trying to know what we don't know, etc. That trying
both stimulates the sense of "I" and is responsible for conditioning "I" in the
future. With balance and the confidence that the other kinds of
happiness allows, it becomes possible to "let go", to relax and approach life
from the way it is at this moment. Then the burden, the need and the doubt need
not arise.
Sometimes, Buddhists themselves get attached to "suffering" and assume that
"everything is suffering" or even that their practice is going well because they
are discovering all kinds of emotional conflicts within themselves. Of course
no-one can expect introspection to always present images of harmony, but
sometimes we may even forget to notice our well-being, or else regard it as
unimportant - "suffering is the real thing." But the Buddha's realisation was
that unhappiness is an addition, in its original nature, the mind is bright and
undisturbed.
We forget and fall into dreams. Out of compassion, the Buddha invites us to wake
up, and presents us with a way to see for ourselves.
Cittaviveka Monastery
Article for Santacittarama Newsletter, 1995
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