The ABCs of Buddhism begins with you, the sufferant, who is bearing some kind of painful burden. The sufferant tries everything in its power to overcome present and future suffering. The history of all the world's sufferants, however, has a rather dismal last chapter. It says we will all die—some in extreme pain some not. It also mentions that since we've already been born once there is no certainty we won't be born again. Who knows, we could end up being reborn in some war torn country or reborn in some horrible state of being. Fortune may not be on the side of the sufferant. Right now this life is the only one we have. More importantly, we can do something about suffering.
The Buddha’s teaching is remarkable because he discovered the problem of suffering and how to end it. Foremost, he discovered that the sufferant and the body it bears are not one and the same thing. The sufferant can actually be liberated from the body. The sufferant, however, finds this hard to believe. The sufferant believes, with regard to the psychophysical body, this body is mine, I am this body, this body is my true self. This is unlike the Buddha who sees his relationship with the psychophysical body differently as, “This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.”
The fundamental cause of suffering the Buddha discovered, in a nutshell, is craving. Craving begins with the powerful belief that the psychophysical body is mine which then leads to “I am this body” and finally, “It is my self” which is not actually true. As one might expect, distinguishing the bearer from their burden of suffering, which is the psychophysical body we inherit at birth, is no easy task. As a matter of fact, it is almost an impossible task to discern between pain and the one who bears the pain because the sufferant, i.e., the bearer, craves the body.
In order to liberate the sufferant the Buddha, to facilitate the process of first discerning the psychophysical body of suffering from the bearer who craves such a body, breaks down the body into five aggregates. They are as follows: physical form, feelings, thoughts, inclinations, and consciousness or the same, sensory awareness. The Buddha then teaches that each aggregate is impermanent, suffering, and not actually our self.
The fact that one might be able to distinguish themselves fully and completely from the psychophysical body of suffering thus to attain complete liberation certainly counts as a pivotal discovery made by the Buddha which he tried to teach to his followers.
But perhaps just as important, the Buddha realized that the primary medium and substance of all existence is mind (citta) which is never truly embodied but nevertheless can bind itself to the psychophysical body. In fact, it was during his awakening that the Buddha awakened to the full nature and power of mind which can bind itself to a self-caused cycle of perpetual suffering or free itself. Accordingly, the Buddha was able to pass beyond this shore (i.e., the psychophysical dimension) to the highest other shore in which he saw mind in an utterly purified state of being which is naturally free from any possibility of psychophysical bonding leading to rebirth. This state he accomplished by introspective meditation purifying his mind until he beheld its deathless element, that is, nirvana.
Knowing the real nature of mind, the problem of suffering arises when as mind we blindly crave phenomena beginning with the psychophysical body we engage with in our mother’s womb. Strongly connecting with it we have, over the years, become gradually enshrouded in it losing the basic sense of unbodiedness which is mind’s natural state. This can further be envisioned as a higher vibration getting pulled down into a lower one. This happens, for example, when atoms combine into molecules. The vibratory rate of the atoms decrease.
It is important to understand that as mind when we lock onto the psychophysical body by craving, being always in sympathy with it, we also lock on to its torment and thus come to suffer its fate, sympathetically. On the other hand, when as mind we see by introspective meditation that mind, empty of all possible constructions, transcends the psychophysical body, like the Buddha did, we too awaken from the spell that this body is mine, I am it, it is my self. This is rightly the end of all future suffering.
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