What is the origin of suffering?. Most people don't give it a thought. We just silently suffer thinking that it is so unjust that situations are the way they are. Little do we understand the inner reasons of our suffering and the origin of suffering. Unless we understood this root problem of how suffering originates we would always suffer and search for the end of it. There are two ways of seeing suffering. One surrender to destiny, saying that it is destiny that has resulted in this sad situation. Others believe that suffering can be eliminated by changing our external conditions.Both of these are a result of incorrectly comprehending the origin of our suffering. If we seek solutions not comprehending the root cause we only get symptomatic relief. It is like treating infection with paracetamol. It will subside the fever but not the infection.
What then is the root cause of suffering? .
It is a misconception resulting from ignorance.
Ignorance of what ?. Ignorance of who we are. Now this is not at all obvious. How does the fact that we have ignorance, lead to suffering. Suffering seems real. There are a multitude of thoughts , emotions and feelings. All these are really painful. We don't need them. We want a peaceful and calm mind. Why does ignorance lead to these state of affairs?. Why are external conditions not blamed ?.
Whatever be the cause of suffering, if somebody ask you "Who are you?". What would be your reply?. You would say " I am so and so". Now there would not be any confusion as to this answer. Also if the question is followed by "Where were you yesterday?" . You would answer it with a statement which describes where your body was yesterday. Again there would not be any confusion as to this. This shows that internally we have absolute faith in who we are . There is never any doubt regarding who we are. How does this conviction arise?. This conviction is a result of our mind. We are always aware of our mind and its thoughts. So we tend to believe what it says . It says that I am inside this body experiencing this world, or in other words I am this body itself.
Let us try to understand how this idea comes about. If you look in the external world, how do you know a certain thing exists ?. You can perceive it using the senses. You know that a tree exists by analyzing the sensory input given. Perceptions give an indication of something out there. Perceptions themselves are not real. They are pointers as to the reality of something. We can see that a thought of a tree is not the tree. Now this means that a real thing exists independent of the conscious construct.
So now try to understand the concept of I. Where is this I existing in the outside world?. It is true that there is a thought in our mind , however there is no concrete I existing anywhere. Now you might say there is a body existing. But a body is only a body. It is not an I. You can look at any part of the body and convince yourself that it is quiet an inert object with no sense of existence of its own. It is much like a rock or a tree. Only thing is that there are certain number of chemical reactions going on, like respiration, digestion and so on. However they all happen automatically with no sense of I. Even when we are unconscious they happen. So it is clear that the body can never be an I . So our idea of I comes from a thought in our mind . But this thought refers to something that doesn't exist. It is like saying that there is a thought in my mind which says there are horses with horns. Is there any sanctity to these thoughts ?. It is a misconception.
Now you might be thinking that it is true that the I doesn't actually exist. But my suffering seems to be real. There are thoughts, emotions and feelings certainly. How can that cease to exist?. In order to understand this , you need to carefully see what is a miserable thought. Let us take an imaginary situation in which you have lost a very precious thing such as a job, or some such thing. Now carefully analyze what are the thoughts in your mind. Your mind would have lot of thoughts and emotions associated with it. It would say " I am so desperate". Now see what is real and what is not. The fact that there is a loss of job is truth. You can verify it by real facts that you are no longer permitted in the company and so on. So you can say that there is some sadness associated with it. But there is an unreal thing in this. It is the I referred to . Since there is no I to which this happens , there is no sanctity in the saying . Suffering exists as a series of conditions , but it is not to any I. Because you can clearly see that except for the belief that an I exists, the real I is no where real like the loss of job which can be verified.
This is surprising. If there is no I, then who does this suffering refer to ?. Nobody. There is no one on the other end of your suffering to which it refers. It exists only as a sequence of disturbances in consciousness. It all happens automatically just like digestion or anything. In short life flows automatically . However there is no one who is affected because of these. It is just an appearance in consciousness. But you can see that if you believe in the I thought without understanding it , all these thoughts refer to you. Then naturally there is a compounding of the suffering.
This can be seen with a thought experiment. Suppose for a moment you got outside your body and start observing the body. What would you see?. You would see various movements of the body which all seem to be guided by sensory stimuli. Also you would observe various thoughts in your mind. Emotions arising and so on. All these are real. However you would never observe an I existing to which all these things are being referred to. It is your hallucinating mind that has created first a non existent entity and then tie all the happenings to this non existent I. In other words misery is a misconception.
So what is the solution?. You can see that the solution is not related to finding a better external situation. It is related to finding who you are.. Unless we remove this root misconception ,our suffering will never cease.Also note that there is only one cause . Happiness does not come from an external situation for the same reason. The happiness that we usually see comes from a misconceived I to whom the happy situation is associated. This is why we believe that we need to achieve something to be happy.
Meditation can be defined as the practice to find who we are truly. It may be a practice at first , but later it would become our permanent state so that we never fall into the hallucinated ego. In meditation we see that there is a space of awareness in which all things seems to exist. This is certainly true. Even to deny consciousness we require consciousness. However we can see that this awareness is not a separate I as the mind tell us. It is something that is eternal and can witness all. However the witness is not affected by the sufferings. He sees them but stands independent of it. If we are that , is there any suffering to it?. Is there anything that needs to be done?. What difference would it make for the sakshi?. All these needs to be seen from our own experience.
What then is the root cause of suffering? .
It is a misconception resulting from ignorance.
Ignorance of what ?. Ignorance of who we are. Now this is not at all obvious. How does the fact that we have ignorance, lead to suffering. Suffering seems real. There are a multitude of thoughts , emotions and feelings. All these are really painful. We don't need them. We want a peaceful and calm mind. Why does ignorance lead to these state of affairs?. Why are external conditions not blamed ?.
Whatever be the cause of suffering, if somebody ask you "Who are you?". What would be your reply?. You would say " I am so and so". Now there would not be any confusion as to this answer. Also if the question is followed by "Where were you yesterday?" . You would answer it with a statement which describes where your body was yesterday. Again there would not be any confusion as to this. This shows that internally we have absolute faith in who we are . There is never any doubt regarding who we are. How does this conviction arise?. This conviction is a result of our mind. We are always aware of our mind and its thoughts. So we tend to believe what it says . It says that I am inside this body experiencing this world, or in other words I am this body itself.
Let us try to understand how this idea comes about. If you look in the external world, how do you know a certain thing exists ?. You can perceive it using the senses. You know that a tree exists by analyzing the sensory input given. Perceptions give an indication of something out there. Perceptions themselves are not real. They are pointers as to the reality of something. We can see that a thought of a tree is not the tree. Now this means that a real thing exists independent of the conscious construct.
So now try to understand the concept of I. Where is this I existing in the outside world?. It is true that there is a thought in our mind , however there is no concrete I existing anywhere. Now you might say there is a body existing. But a body is only a body. It is not an I. You can look at any part of the body and convince yourself that it is quiet an inert object with no sense of existence of its own. It is much like a rock or a tree. Only thing is that there are certain number of chemical reactions going on, like respiration, digestion and so on. However they all happen automatically with no sense of I. Even when we are unconscious they happen. So it is clear that the body can never be an I . So our idea of I comes from a thought in our mind . But this thought refers to something that doesn't exist. It is like saying that there is a thought in my mind which says there are horses with horns. Is there any sanctity to these thoughts ?. It is a misconception.
Now you might be thinking that it is true that the I doesn't actually exist. But my suffering seems to be real. There are thoughts, emotions and feelings certainly. How can that cease to exist?. In order to understand this , you need to carefully see what is a miserable thought. Let us take an imaginary situation in which you have lost a very precious thing such as a job, or some such thing. Now carefully analyze what are the thoughts in your mind. Your mind would have lot of thoughts and emotions associated with it. It would say " I am so desperate". Now see what is real and what is not. The fact that there is a loss of job is truth. You can verify it by real facts that you are no longer permitted in the company and so on. So you can say that there is some sadness associated with it. But there is an unreal thing in this. It is the I referred to . Since there is no I to which this happens , there is no sanctity in the saying . Suffering exists as a series of conditions , but it is not to any I. Because you can clearly see that except for the belief that an I exists, the real I is no where real like the loss of job which can be verified.
This is surprising. If there is no I, then who does this suffering refer to ?. Nobody. There is no one on the other end of your suffering to which it refers. It exists only as a sequence of disturbances in consciousness. It all happens automatically just like digestion or anything. In short life flows automatically . However there is no one who is affected because of these. It is just an appearance in consciousness. But you can see that if you believe in the I thought without understanding it , all these thoughts refer to you. Then naturally there is a compounding of the suffering.
This can be seen with a thought experiment. Suppose for a moment you got outside your body and start observing the body. What would you see?. You would see various movements of the body which all seem to be guided by sensory stimuli. Also you would observe various thoughts in your mind. Emotions arising and so on. All these are real. However you would never observe an I existing to which all these things are being referred to. It is your hallucinating mind that has created first a non existent entity and then tie all the happenings to this non existent I. In other words misery is a misconception.
So what is the solution?. You can see that the solution is not related to finding a better external situation. It is related to finding who you are.. Unless we remove this root misconception ,our suffering will never cease.Also note that there is only one cause . Happiness does not come from an external situation for the same reason. The happiness that we usually see comes from a misconceived I to whom the happy situation is associated. This is why we believe that we need to achieve something to be happy.
Meditation can be defined as the practice to find who we are truly. It may be a practice at first , but later it would become our permanent state so that we never fall into the hallucinated ego. In meditation we see that there is a space of awareness in which all things seems to exist. This is certainly true. Even to deny consciousness we require consciousness. However we can see that this awareness is not a separate I as the mind tell us. It is something that is eternal and can witness all. However the witness is not affected by the sufferings. He sees them but stands independent of it. If we are that , is there any suffering to it?. Is there anything that needs to be done?. What difference would it make for the sakshi?. All these needs to be seen from our own experience.
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