What do we do with suffering?

East and West can be compared in a multitude of ways. In this lecture we will look at how East and West define suffering, how to get out of it, and how long time we have to get out of it


In the West, we will most likely see a doctor, or we might attend therapy when we feel suffering. According to Western minds, suffering simply calls for a remedy, a pill, surgery - there is an expectation that you can do what you want and someone will find a remedy if the consequences hurts.

In the East, Suffering would be met with an analysis of its causes.
A famous Eastern way of analysing is Buddha’ four noble truth:

The four noble truth are

(1) suffering (duhkha) exists;
(2) the origin of suffering is attachment;
(3) there is a cessation of suffering; and
(4) there exist a path leading to that cessation.

Here from Dalai Lama: The Good Heart p 181

The Western culture are only beginning to absorb the deep understanding that are mirrored both in Christ’s words and in Buddha™s words about suffering and compassion.

The origin of Suffering

The Dalai Lama, in his book The Good Heart, describes suffering this way:
[¦] The scriptures speak of three types or levels of suffering (Duhka):

1. The suffering of suffering, referring to what we ordinarily regard as a painful experience.

2. The suffering of change, that is, all experiences that we conventionally consider to be pleasurable but which are not immutably so.

3. The suffering of conditioned existence. The third category refers to the basic state of dissatisfaction, propensity to suffering, and susceptibility to delusion that underlies an unenlightened existence

Dalai Lama: The Good Heart p 187

http://www.wga.hu/art/p/piero/cosimo/sistina/lb-sermo.jpg
Fresco Cappella Sistina, Vatican

The Sermon on the Mount:

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilest. thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Matthews 7:23-26

Rembrandt: Return of the Prodigal Son

One go or many

As the understanding of the Christian scriptures is today, maybe not as Christ meant it “ there is a marked difference between Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism

TIME

In Christianity you have got one shot to make it to hell or heaven
a meagre average of 70 “ 80 years to become enlightened!
In the East you have got millions of lives

Dalai Lama talking about spiritual development as something that takes time, is asked how long?:
D.L.: Now to give a Buddhist reply to your question, we are speaking in terms of innumerable aeons. And when you think in terms of aeons, years and month are nothing. A short life is nothing! A hundred years “ nothing! When you think in terms of many aeons, that really helps to develop a strong determination.

Dalai Lama: The good Heart p 125

http://www.foof.most.org.pl/g_fotos/osho_fo/osho6.htm

OSHO’s MULTIVERSITY “

A bridge between the Western and the Eastern approach to development
My emphasis here is on therapies which don’t go on for years and years; just a few days of therapy to clear the ground for meditation.
We are running here almost one hundred therapy groups, for every possible human being.
But this therapy is not the end; therapy is a preparation, clearing the ground for meditation.
This is the only place in the world where therapy is being used as clearing the ground for a tremendous transformation from mind to no-mind

OSHO (Zen: The mystery and Poetry of the Beyond)