20241012 - 11:48
Fundamentally, we might characterise the path as ‘going against the grain’. Then if we were to elaborate on this statement, we would come to see that it’s a lot more radical than it might seem at first glance, even within buddhist circles. It is, however, a good guideline.
A question that’s been popping up lately and which, at this point in time, is seemingly taken for granted, might be a good start: Why do I practice? Why am I interested in Buddhism? What is my goal, or, if such a thing might be taken too harshly, what is my path? In practice, there are as many answers as there are practicioners. In theory, there is but one. What did the Buddha teach? Liberation from suffering. What is the Buddhist path? The path towards liberation from suffering.
In practice, a lot of what is actually taught helps with many worldly goals, and can more or less align with a ‘mundane’ life. Certainly meditation techniques, reflection, and a practice of acceptance, helps manage the daily suffering that we are exposed to. Methods of alleviating pressure is not to be taken lightly in their helpfulness and importance; we might get very far in our general sense of calmness and happiness following such things. In fact, if we look closely, a lot of ‘fruits’ of Buddhism, taken in this way, are not unique to this path. Common ‘fruitions’ of a permanent shift in consciousness can be found in many other traditions and practices, and can be likened and brought about in different ways, as anyone who has experimented with psychedelics will be sure to tell you. The Buddha himself, before he became thus, followed these paths to their end, and so we can be sure that they existed even before his time. And yet he pressed on, as they did not lead to the liberation of suffering. They did not lead to the liberation of suffering.
What defines Buddhism, what makes it unique, and what makes it worthwhile, is this. It is everything that it is. Liberation from suffering. Buddha is unique in his ‘uncovering of this ancient path’, as the Suttas say. He is unique, not in his enlightenment, but in the fact that he uncovered it. Since it has been uncovered, a requisite of fruition is ‘the words of another’, meaning the transmission of Dhamma. It cannot occur ‘by accident’, nor by following other teachings or traditions. Liberation from suffering is the unique fruit of the Buddhist path. In practice, this means that it is not intuitive. Intuition, although surely valued, can not take us there. We can not claim it to be a ‘natural’ path. This means that we must go against the grain. We must override our instincts.
If we were to go back over this difference, what does it really mean that the Buddhist path is unique? It does not mean that other practices can get us ‘almost there’, and all that’s missing is the “final push” of Buddhism. It does not mean that the Buddha just ventured further than anyone else had done before. It is rather a very foundational piece of the puzzle missing, and until we recognize it and learn to see it for ourselves, we cannot see the path clearly. Buddhism uniquely uproots suffering. Everything else which we have discussed, might instead be classified as management. Importantly, these two modes of practice are in direct conflict to each other. For as long as we value management of suffering, we cannot begin to uproot it. Management is suffering; is a burden. Every action ever taken in our life for as long as we have been alive has been in the domain of management. The whole range is there, from the coarsest entertainment, sex, and drugs, to the most refined of calming or concentration meditation techniques and austere living practices, they are all on the level of alleviating pressure, of management. For as long as we uphold them, they might contain our suffering. And yet they do nothing to lessen our exposure. Because still we value the alleviation of pressure, and it is in this direction that our actions are oriented.
What, then, is the path? What leads to uprooting? What does it mean, to go against the grain? To be established in virtue; in body, speech, and mind. To keep the precepts, as a start. It is a container, and it increases the pressure that we feel. To know wholesome as wholesome; unwholesome as unwholesome. It means to see the root (intention) of our action, and not act out of them (on the level of body, speech, and mind), if they are rooted in greed, aversion, or delusion. In short, to endure the pressure. As everything inside our being screams at us to alleviate it on the basis of our senses, instead we simply endure. We do not welcome, and we do not chase away, but we are steadfast and we stay, enduring. To not attempt to alleviate the pressure, to not define success as the lessening of pressure: this is to go against the grain. To see the pressure, to see the aversion to it, and yet, to not act out, to do nothing about it: this is to go against the grain. Not to cover up, but to simultaneously see the pressure, and yet to keep going about our business, letting it endure for as long as it might choose: this is to go against the grain. This is to walk the path of Buddha towards the liberation from suffering.