Eastern philosophy has been on an uptick of late. Quite possibly due to the failure of traditional dogmas in bridging the experience of the natural world with the claims and tenets of conventional faith along with advances in the knowledge of the natural world. In today’s time, eastern philosophy seems to promise the practitioner fruits of internal peace and a reliable world view capable of weathering the storms of traditional inquiry.
Among the colors on the eastern philosophy palette, Buddhism is the biggest, brightest and most popular color and it was Buddhism that I tried to wrap my head around for the longest time. Despite the pretty little picture that it manages to paint on the public canvas, I couldn’t help but leave disappointed with its premise. Let me show you what I mean. The following is not meant to be a history lesson so you will be disappointed if you are looking for the story of Siddhartha Gautama. I’ll be jumping straight into the meat of Buddhist philosophy.
Buddhism pins itself on a set of premises that it calls the four noble truths. These truths seek to describe the human condition as the Buddhist sees it. The four truths are:
- Life is filled with “dukha” (Often translated as suffering but describes a more general un-satisfactoriness that underlies certain fulfillments of human desire). Let’s call this “suffering” for simplicity as it is commonly translated to be.
- That “desire” and “ignorance” of reality lie at the root of this “suffering”.
- That elimination of the above mentioned “suffering” is possible.
- The fourth truth outlines the process to achieving the end of “suffering” through the Noble Eight-fold path.
So what exactly is the problem you might ask?
Well, does “suffering” as a result of frustrated “desire” exist. From my personal experience of the world, I have to say yes. That’s a big YES. I have to say it does exist. For sure. Do I agree that “desire” and the “ignorance” of the true nature of reality is the cause of this “suffering”? Well, yes I think unmet desire is painful. Attaching yourself to something is definitely a recipe for disappointment when things don’t work out the way you expect. About the ignorance part, it really boils down to what the true nature of reality is and I have not found a way to reliably verify claims. That is not to say that some claims don’t seem more plausible than others. In this regard, I simply defer to the age old advice from Voltaire,
“Take after those who seek the truth but flee from those who find it.” – Voltaire
So what exactly is the issue then. It’s this, that here you are, a feeling, thinking, breathing, sentient being. A sentient being that ,as far as we are aware, occupies a small speck of a corner in this vast vast universe with no indication of similar sentience present anywhere else. Here you are. With this innately human capacity to attach, to desire, to yearn, to seek and to be frustrated and suffer for it. All this, and the path to nirvana requires that I be more like a, *drum roll* , ROCK! Millions of years of complex evolutionary processes resulting in a machine that is nothing short of incredible. Yet, the goal is to be non-desiring, non-attaching and free of suffering. WHAT? Are you telling me that’s the best that we can come up with? Rocks don’t desire and consequently they don’t suffer. I cannot help but see Buddhism as requiring that I give up those very aspects of myself that make me uniquely human. It’s so absurd that it’s almost hilarious that somehow this is the answer that was arrived at after hundreds and thousands of years.
This is simply an affront to existence itself. To be a Buddhist is to me as good as spitting at being fully human.
Go out and desire, feel, crave, try and suffer.
