About Buddhism

The Buddha said,

“I teach only
two things:
the nature of
suffering
and its end.”

  

If you’re curious about Buddhism, my book can serve as an introduction. As the Buddhist teacher, Sylvia Boorstein (who wrote the Foreword) told me, the tools and practices in the book can help anyone who suffers due to a chronic condition, including life itself! In that sense, illness can function as a metaphor for suffering, which, along with the cessation of suffering, is at the heart of the Buddha’s teaching.

In the first talk the Buddha gave after his enlightenment, he set out what has come to be called the Four Noble Truths. In the first noble truth, the Buddha instructed us to come to know the fact of suffering in our lives. I use the word “suffering” because it’s the word westerners associate with the first noble truth. The Buddha used the Pali word dukkha; it’s too multifaceted and nuanced a term to be captured in a one-word translation. Dukkha includes suffering, stress, discomfort, but more broadly refers to the dissatisfaction we feel with the circumstances of our life.

When I first encountered this teaching, I felt a great sense of relief. Finally, someone was describing this life in a way that fit a good portion of my experience. (I devote a chapter in my book to the Buddha’s teaching on dukkha and how, counterintuitive though it may sound, truly seeing its presence in our lives can be a big relief.)

In the second noble truth, the Buddha said that the reason for dukkha is desire or craving (literally: tanha which translates from the Pali as “thirst”). I think of tanha as the seemingly ever-present mental states of “want” and “don’t want” in our lives. We want pleasant experiences; we don’t want unpleasant ones.

In the third noble truth, the Buddha gave us the good news that there can be an end to dukkha in our lives. Of course, we can’t stop our body from being sick, nor can we prevent everyday bodily aches and pains. But we can put an end to suffering in the mind. In the fourth noble truth, the Buddha set out the lesson plan to accomplish this, known as the Eightfold Path.

I remember exactly what I was doing (reading in a hotel lobby in Honolulu) the moment in 1992 that I had the gut-level realization that if I were truly free of my desires and cravings, I’d be at peace with myself and the world. Ever since that day, I’ve been working on the Buddha’s lesson plan.