‘Zen and the Art of Suffering’

by Christopher Howard
trashbarge@hotmail.com

A friend once told me that growing up a catholic was for him an apprenticeship in suffering. I
recall, with some self-pity, myself the catholic child, yawning through endless sermons,
mumbled rituals and weird incomprehensible hymns. My mind had an habitual tendency to
wander, searching out some kind of familiarity or even comfort, but everywhere I looked the
symbol of Jesus, bloodily pinned by rusty nails to a cross, his face – weighted by the world’s
sins – full of anguish, helped to remind what an awful, pained and guilty future I was in for.
What Christian believer doesn’t, at some point in his life, see himself on that cross?

There came the moment when I decided that there had to be a better way. I was resigned to
religion in some way, in the sense that I’d been brainwashed to believe that atheism wasn’t an
option. So at age 16 I began my long fruitless search through the world’s theological
offerings. It was the Van Morrison song Cleaning Windows that got me onto Christmas
Humphries and his ‘book on Zen’. It was the beginning of a lifelong love hate relationship
with what I believe is not only the best, but perhaps the only viable religion in the world.

If it is a religion at all. The venerable Richard Dawkins in his highly entertaining book The
God Delusion suggests that Buddhism may be better termed an ‘ethical system or philosophy
of life’. He may be right but having been exposed time and again to violent histories of
wrathful gods, I for one am reluctant to dismiss the only religion that gives religion a good
name.

After years in the glorious wilderness I turned to Buddhism again recently. A love-affair-
induced divorce had me in tatters and rather than hit the well stocked self help shelves at the
local book-mart, I went back to some of my old Buddhist books. Here, I thought, might be a
way out of my suffering.

Buddhism is all about alleviating suffering. Of course this comfort factor could be attached to
other religious or spiritual pursuits, only Buddhism, as it was laid out by its originator, clearly
rejects the usual rituals, altars and even gods. Despite Buddhist practice all over the East, this
is Buddhism as the Buddha taught it, and, aside from everything else, this is its most
endearing quality.

‘Suffering’ according to Buddhism, is inherent in all objects, things of desire, attachments to

anything. Any venture or activity rooted in desire will inevitably lead to suffering. This of
course runs polar contrary to Western living – where life is about the pursuit of desire, power,
stimulation etc. To alleviate suffering, naturally, we need to alleviate desire. And to alleviate
desire we need to see the truth of ‘things’. Because when we gain this truth, through true
insight, we see that in fact nothing is worth attaching oneself to. No desire is worth pursuing.
There is a certain logic to all this but the question begs: who would want to live without
desire?

Its arguable that Western religions exist for parallel reasons: man’s obsessive quest to find
answers, thereby solving the potentially painful question of why do I exist? The answer to
that, and everything else, is to answer to God the creator and God the overseer and ultimate
judge. But while most other religions, particularly the monotheistic ones, through their
temples, symbols and rituals, seek to polarize all things, Buddhism seeks Nirvana by taking
the ‘middle path’.

Its an over simplification to liken the state of Nirvana to Heaven but one idea does seem to
resonate in both: the complete annihilation of the human condition - suffering. While Heaven
seems like your favorite all-inclusive holiday resort, Nirvana is more akin to a never-ending
morphine high. Something along the lines of existence without ‘being’ at all. There is a way
to Nirvana, if that’s your goal. But you might first have to resolve the paradox of desiring
Nirvana whilst giving up all pretensions of desire. If this doesn’t put you off then buckle in
and prepare yourself for the three virtuous steps. Three Steps that, according to Buddhadasa
Bhikkhu’s Handbook for Mankind, strive to purify the mind, rid it of the domination of things
and push you along the path of enlightenment.

Step one ‘Morality’ is admirable. It’s basically about behaving oneself and being aware of
how one’s actions affect other people. Anyone can agree that this basic version of morality is
healthy and it also has the added bonus of, if followed ‘religiously’, getting rid of undesirable
after-effects like guilt that can result from impulsive actions or bad behavior. For the good of
a functioning society this is a step that most of us should, at the very least, aspire to – with or
without religion.

Step two is ‘Concentration’. Concentration or meditation involves training the mind to remain
in a state most conducive to success in whatever one sets out to achieve. And this, when
practiced properly, leads us to the ultimate goal step three ‘Insight’. True insight into
everything is a hard-ask, for anyone. The Buddha may have achieved it but who, in this
modern world of over flooded diluted cross-information, would or could make a claim to it? It
is, no less, to know the ultimate truth about everything. This is a state where suffering is truly
alleviated because concentration on knowledge has taught the person to grasp the ultimate
truth: that nothing is worth attaching oneself to.

It’s not possible of course, to explain away a religion in 2000 words or less. There’s a lot
more to it and no doubt differences in interpretation according to denomination or culture.
Many Buddhists may be offended by my over simplification of their religion but then, if they
go back to the source, they’ll see that Buddhism was meant to be simple – and it was meant to
make life simple.

Did my reinvigorated interest in Buddhism make my life any simpler? I could do worse than
reference Van the Man again. His sublime song Enlightenment written in 1990, eight years
after the Window Cleaner ‘went home and read his Christmas Humphries book on Zen’,
declares emphatically, ‘Enlightenment … don’t know what it is’.

Honestly, over the years, Ive given the three steps a shot and while step one has forced me to
think about relationship issues the other two steps, requiring obscene amounts of discipline
and time, are much harder to get a hold of. Not long ago I saw the Dali Lama on TV, his brow
furrowed over the concerns of his oppressed countymen (suffering?), and I put down my
Handbook for Mankind for the last time and did what any depressed Westerner with a willing
bank balance would do – I called my quack.

Who am I to live without desire? I cant live without desire! The whole idea of alleviating
desire is to also cut out the pleasure of fulfilling or even anticipating desire. I can’t imagine
my life without desire, or the passion that it often invokes. Practicing Buddhism means
eliminating desire completely. Am I to eliminate love? Sex? The simple pleasures of enjoying
a good meal? A glass of Hunter Shiraz? And of course the list goes on and on.

It’s interpreted in a lot of ways but Buddhism certainly suggests that ‘Ignorance is the only
sin.’ Of course, we have our own version of that. I’m reminded of the character Cypher in the
Matrix who is fed up with the darkness and depression of the real world and wants back into
the Matrix. ‘I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix
is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious…’ He goes on to state a Western classic:
‘Ignorance is bliss’. So its time to take your pick – sin or bliss, what will it be? And what are
the consequences?

We suffer dearly for our mistakes and that’s what Buddhism is trying to tell us. We go for the
quick fixes in the here and now and we often find ourselves out in the wilderness, never
understanding how we got there. We cling to everything to avoid sadness, loneliness and even
to try and stave off death, but ultimately these things always catch up on us. The Buddhists
say that everything is impermanent, transitory. And its true, we know how the external world
changes, and also the world within. Nothing stays the same. Clinging ultimately leads to loss.
And it’s loss with which we in the West suffer so much.

Even in the West at some point we get somewhat wiser as we get older, or at least more
rational. Eventually we make decisions that look like, but ultimately compromise, the ‘follow
your heart’ principle: we get married, have families, pursue careers and look for stability. This
in essence is a type of middle way. But every now and then the ‘follow your heart’ principle -
call it temptation - will rear its ugly head. And then what to do? Break our stability? Often the
answer is yes and even this adheres to a rationality, albeit one of masochistic sensibility. I am
going to do this because ‘I live here and now’ and ‘I only live once.’ I’ll suffer for it but that’s
what life is - ups and downs. If you want to live life to the fullest you have to accept both
sides of the coin. We go with the impulse, because we want to feel while we are alive and not
have to pinch ourselves all the time. We want to live before we die. And if suffer we must,
then so be it.

For these reasons the Western world is smothered by an overabundance of wealthy

psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists of every type imaginable. Its not to say that the East
doesn’t, on a much smaller scale, have its equivalent. Its well documented that Freud made
some kind of imprint in Asia in psychoanalytical thinking during the mid part of the twentieth
century but more often than not his theories and practices were adapted to the different
cultures and particularly their mythology and often their theology. They weren’t swallowing
the concept whole and they certainly weren’t and still don’t buy it as a luxury. And this,
setting aside differences in economy and consumerism, could be at least in part due to the
values they get from religions like Buddhism. If anything, from Carl Jung’s ideas of the
collective consciousness to the recent booms in natural healing, Eastern thinking has been
sold back to us and has turned into a profitable source of consumerism.

Buddhism itself, in accurately describing the source of misery, could certainly be

complimentary to modern therapy. And people in emotional turmoil could do worse than turn
to eastern practices such as yoga and meditation. These things do, and have, helped. But it’s
the truth or true knowledge of ourselves and the ‘things’ around us that always seems to
allude us in a society obsessed with immediate stimulation.
So what does it matter? The truth? I saw that psychiatrist about three or four times before I
realized that that wasn’t going to work either. Its not that I’m against psycho therapy but those
visits made me realize, emphatically, that whether I talked to a passive arm-chaired listener or
not, I was going to have to grin and bear my situation. Too late for informed choices based on
the truth. Too late for Buddhism. I was headed for some serious suffering. You’ve got to hope
in the end that experience teaches, that you learn from your mistakes. But, in my case, I doubt
it.