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Introduction
I believe the Buddha’s teachings are what we need right now. They are made precisely for times like these. For all of us who are suffering groundlessness, fear, or loss—because of the world’s problems or just our own—Buddhist wisdom is the right medicine.
The Buddha is sometimes called the Great Physician. Twenty five hundred years ago, he made a precise diagnosis of the human condition—our condition. It is as accurate and relevant today as it was then. He diagnosed our problem as dukkha, which we generally translate as “suffering.” Then he discovered its cause, and he proposed a cure. Today we call this diagnosis and cure the Four Noble Truths.
Famously, the Four Noble Truths describe suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and a path to the cessation of suffering. But when we say that the Buddha promised an end to suffering, we have to be careful. Buddhist practice does not offer an end to change, loss, or even pain. These are basic facts of life, generally beyond our control. We do not have the power to banish them from our lives.
What we can change is the way we react. The Buddha’s great discovery was that most of what we call suffering, dissatisfaction, or unhappiness is really the product of our own reactions, of our own mind. To that suffering he did promise an end. This book will help you apply the Buddha’s wisdom so that you can lessen the suffering of living in difficult times. In the process you may discover resources of love, skillfulness, and happiness you
didn’t know you had in you.
Life is stressful and insecure for many of us these days. If we haven’t actually lost our job or our home, we fear we might. If we run a business, we worry about how to keep it afloat. If we have a family, we are anxious about our children’s future. For those of us approaching retirement, we wonder whether our savings will sustain us in our old age.
Beyond the immediate difficulties, we fear for the world’s long-term prospects. The relatively peaceful and prosperous life we have enjoyed since the end of the Second World War—long enough to seem all but permanent—seems questionable as we look ahead into the twenty-first century. And to these fears and stresses we add all the normal, inescapable difficulties of everyday life—the profound challenges of sickness, a death in the family, or problems in our relationships.
Much as we’d like to change all this, we probably can’t. What we can change—if we’re given the right tools—is the way we experience, understand, and deal with these realities. According to the Buddha, that’s not just half the battle, it’s pretty much the whole battle. We have the freedom to choose how we react to the world, and if we choose wisely, we can find joy, love, and happiness even in difficult times. We can transform our world by transforming how we experience it. In doing so, we benefit ourselves and all those around us.
This book will take you on a journey. It’s a practical journey, aimed at helping you deal with whatever difficulties come up. Buddhism is renowned for its array of proven techniques, its skillful means, and you will learn how to apply them in your life. But you will also find that this journey is profound. While this book is not about exalted concepts like “enlightenment,” you still might catch a glimpse of that as you work through the daily challenges of life. Buddhism doesn’t separate the sacred and the secular; enlightenment is far more ordinary and accessible than you might think, and it’s grounded nowhere else but in the gritty realities of life.
The journey this book offers is not an easy or quick one. Any of us who have been practicing Buddhism for years will tell you that it doesn’t offer any magic bullets or quick cures. I can tell you that the reality of my own life is proof of that. This journey is a step-by-step path of self-awareness, taming our wild minds, and examining the unstated assumptions we bring to life. It’s hard work, and honest self-awareness can be pretty painful sometimes. But any moment of clarity, of opening our hearts, of easing the suffering of ourselves and others, is a better moment. What else we can aspire to in life?
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