Becoming a Free Person

Three Marks of Existence: Suffering

“To be really alive, to touch life deeply, you have to become a free person. Cultivating mindfulness can help you be free.” — Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master

Nowadays "mindfulness" and "meditation" are billed as the elixirs to cure all that ails us: lower our blood pressure, reduce stress, sleep more soundly, and generally be more “Zen.” And, of course, in the ocean of capitalism we swim in, practicing mindfulness will help us be more focused and successful at work. Just like with hatha yoga, our society has appropriated profound spiritual teachings to generate profit and spur productivity. When we take up the ancient practice of meditation with these materialistic and self-oriented goals, we unwittingly strengthen grasping mind and set ourselves up for disappointment.

If you're even slightly familiar with the story of Siddhartha Gautama, you'll recall that he didn't leave his princely life behind to be more "Zen"about things or to be more productive. What galvanized Siddhartha on his spiritual quest was crossing paths with the Four Heavenly Messengers when he left his father’s palace, seeing: 1. an old man 2. a sick man 3. a corpse 4. a wandering ascetic.

These four sights profoundly affected Siddhartha and stirred his Bodhichitta—the heart-mind that aspires to awaken. At age 29 he renounced his worldly life to investigate, understand, and end the universal problem of human suffering, in the here and now, not in some metaphysical realm. In his years as a wandering monk, Siddhartha mastered yogic meditation and practiced severe self-mortification before he sat down under the Bodhi tree, pulled an all-nighter, and pledged not to move until he realized the Truth.

So, it'll come as no surprise that the Buddha taught meditation as way for his disciples to have an embodied experience of the cessation of suffering. “Suffering” is one of the Three Marks of Existence, which I think is one of the most transformative teachings of the Buddha. The other two marks are impermanence and the not-self characteristic, which I will discuss in the next two posts.

Dukkha is the word for “suffering” in the ancient language of Pali. It can also be translated as “lack of ease,” “stress,” or “dissatisfaction.” I started practicing Zen meditation in 2001 at the Austin (Texas) Zen Center because I was desperate to find some relief from heavy emotions and afflictive mental states. Before I began practicing, I was very much identified with suffering and really thought it was me and that it was mine!

When suffering arises, our first impulse like most animals, is to avoid it. But unlike other animals, we have the ability to divert our attention from reality. One of the quickest, most habitual ways that we avoid suffering is by retreating to the mind. The mind is an escape artist and much of our society reflects this basic instinct to avoid suffering. Our consumerist society is a den of distractions that slide into addictions: work, entertainment, relationships, alcohol, drugs, shopping, surfing the net, etc. We numb ourselves to suffering. However, this does not lead to the end of suffering. Avoidance perpetuates it.

“Moment after moment, everyone comes out from nothingness. This is the true joy of life.” —Suzuki Roshi, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

To be liberated from suffering we have to become intimate with it: to understand when it’s present, what gives rise to it, and when and how it ceases. Cultivating intimacy IS the act of paying attention to what’s happening in our heart-mind-body, moment after moment.

By stilling the body in meditation, we begin to cultivate an experiential knowledge of suffering. Meditation helps us become intimate with our emotions, thoughts, sensations, and personality traits: what we label as "me, myself, and mine." If we pay close attention, we’ll recognize and FEEL how all conditioned phenomena arise, persist, and perish in the space of heart-mind consciousness. One of the main causes of suffering is grasping onto this transient phenomena and identifying with them, and either wanting the experience to last forever if it is pleasurable or wanting it to immediately disappear if it is unpleasant.

Investigating what goes on in our body-mind is what Eihei Dogen Zenji, the 13th century founder of Sōtō Zen in Japan, calls “taking the backward step to illuminate oneself.” Meditation is about dropping below the thinking mind to reconnect with the physicality of our bodies in the present moment. Zen is a body practice. So we take up the practice of being a body.

Although our minds are quick to label and interpret arising phenomena—emotions, sensations, and thoughts—conceptual overlays prevent us from FEELING/EMBODYING what’s arising. Placing the mind’s attention on arising emotion-sensation in the body is key to transforming the karmic energy of suffering—conditioned patterns of being and doing that cause harm to ourselves or others.

Zazen is the key to becoming a free person. When we stop the body by sitting still on our meditation cushions, we begin the life-long process of discovering what we really are; and if we stick with it long enough, we’ll experience our innate birthright: freedom right here, right now, just as we are, just as life is.