The first step in solving a problem is acknowledging there is a problem. And this takes us to the First Noble Truth.
In a culture that prizes -- nay, demands -- positive thinking and happiness, the First Noble Truth seems out of step. I can't tell you how many times I've sat through an intro-to-Buddhism lecture and observed the audience recoil when told "life is suffering." Nearly always, someone stands up and proclaims (sometimes angrily) that life is happy, dammit.
The result is that sometimes people are in denial of their own unhappiness. They bury emotional discomfort and will themselves to believe that everything is just fine. This is not healthful, physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
We see something like this in the life of the Buddha, who was sheltered from all unpleasantness until well into adulthood. Finally confronted with sickness, old age and death, he was so shaken he could no longer enjoy his privileged life. Only then could he begin his spiritual quest.
(Just think if the Buddha had been reading today's "positive thinking" self-help books. Would he have sought a way to shove sickness, old age and death out of his mind in ten easy steps?)
Of course, other people do go to the opposite extreme and work themselves into a perpetual snit because life isn't what they want it to be. I think much of the fanaticism that roils current events comes from people feeling cheated out of the life they think they are supposed to have. And then they blame something or someone else for that.
Acknowledging there is pain, stress, disappointment, and impermanence, and that's how it is, for everybody, is good mental health hygiene, not to mention a necessary step on the Buddha's path.
No comments:
Post a Comment