Thanks for grappling with this topic. I too always cringe whenever stumbling across one of those RW buddha memes. They never fail to assert the first noble truth, and always seem to forget or ignore the remaining three.
On dukkha, one of the best descriptions/breakdowns of it I ever came across in English was by Joseph Goldstein. He broke down the word into two parts.
The Pali translates roughly as:
Du = “bad”. Kha = “the empty axel hole for a wheel”
So one way of thinking about dukkha, and what it entails would be similar to the results of an ill-fitting axel on a cart or vehicle… a bumpy ride. There are both ups and downs. Vicissitudes of life etc.
I think this more accurately points at the actual far reaching definition of dukkha, as a word encapsulating ALL of experience, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. This is sadly lost in English renditions of “pain” or “suffering”. Moments of mundane sensory satisfaction are also dukkha.
Thank you and I look forward to following the rest of your writings on this topic.
thanks for your kind words. I have been deep in the Australian bush so I have no had a chance to see an reply to this. I have not read this essay you refer to, I may have to look at it. Unlike many on here I don't mind much of what I've heard of Goldstein. Yes, the definition of Dukkha is akshually the next subject I will be looking at. Yes you are right, of course even pleasure is fleeting, like anything else, it cannot be grasped.
Iirc it’s mentioned in his book “Mindfulness: a practical guide to awakening”
Worth also bringing up some further nuance despite what dukkha entails… the Buddha does still encourage the cultivation of jhanas. Which are essentially perceptive attainments of more and more refined states of enjoyment and loveliness, that lead to ever deepening insights into subtler forms of emptiness and fabrication. Causing the arising of what Buddha termed the “beautiful mind states” borne out of seclusion.
This myth that Buddhist meditative practice is gloomy ascetic nihilism needs to be done away with!
Not much into the Buddhism texts but it says what is the most logical evolutionary thing.
Our minds were evolved to serve the body. Not the other way around.
There is no free lunch like thinking that we exist out of our bodies etc.
I loved your example of your grandmother, I too have experienced this amazing experience.
This idea of a permanent soul sounds like a left brained approach to a philosophical issue. Left brain always trying to come up with an answer to a non problem lol.
you may be interested in the intro to this video (the short intro i did) in which Neuroscientist asked a split brained patients hemisphere's if they believed in god. Left brain said yes, right brain said it was an atheist haha...
Haha, yeah I almost forgot about that from the book...
BTW, Gurdjieff said that we aren't born with a soul, we grow one.
Whatever that is, I see it as self awareness which many in the world lack because it's not needed to survive.
In fact, in many ways it holds us back. But then, as you said in the ans article, those people that run with full gas all the time end up burning themselves out.
Perhaps the soul he was alluding to was learning how to use the brakes.
Thanks for grappling with this topic. I too always cringe whenever stumbling across one of those RW buddha memes. They never fail to assert the first noble truth, and always seem to forget or ignore the remaining three.
On dukkha, one of the best descriptions/breakdowns of it I ever came across in English was by Joseph Goldstein. He broke down the word into two parts.
The Pali translates roughly as:
Du = “bad”. Kha = “the empty axel hole for a wheel”
So one way of thinking about dukkha, and what it entails would be similar to the results of an ill-fitting axel on a cart or vehicle… a bumpy ride. There are both ups and downs. Vicissitudes of life etc.
I think this more accurately points at the actual far reaching definition of dukkha, as a word encapsulating ALL of experience, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. This is sadly lost in English renditions of “pain” or “suffering”. Moments of mundane sensory satisfaction are also dukkha.
Thank you and I look forward to following the rest of your writings on this topic.
thanks for your kind words. I have been deep in the Australian bush so I have no had a chance to see an reply to this. I have not read this essay you refer to, I may have to look at it. Unlike many on here I don't mind much of what I've heard of Goldstein. Yes, the definition of Dukkha is akshually the next subject I will be looking at. Yes you are right, of course even pleasure is fleeting, like anything else, it cannot be grasped.
Iirc it’s mentioned in his book “Mindfulness: a practical guide to awakening”
Worth also bringing up some further nuance despite what dukkha entails… the Buddha does still encourage the cultivation of jhanas. Which are essentially perceptive attainments of more and more refined states of enjoyment and loveliness, that lead to ever deepening insights into subtler forms of emptiness and fabrication. Causing the arising of what Buddha termed the “beautiful mind states” borne out of seclusion.
This myth that Buddhist meditative practice is gloomy ascetic nihilism needs to be done away with!
Not much into the Buddhism texts but it says what is the most logical evolutionary thing.
Our minds were evolved to serve the body. Not the other way around.
There is no free lunch like thinking that we exist out of our bodies etc.
I loved your example of your grandmother, I too have experienced this amazing experience.
This idea of a permanent soul sounds like a left brained approach to a philosophical issue. Left brain always trying to come up with an answer to a non problem lol.
you may be interested in the intro to this video (the short intro i did) in which Neuroscientist asked a split brained patients hemisphere's if they believed in god. Left brain said yes, right brain said it was an atheist haha...
https://youtu.be/z9Ba08zp5bg
Haha, yeah I almost forgot about that from the book...
BTW, Gurdjieff said that we aren't born with a soul, we grow one.
Whatever that is, I see it as self awareness which many in the world lack because it's not needed to survive.
In fact, in many ways it holds us back. But then, as you said in the ans article, those people that run with full gas all the time end up burning themselves out.
Perhaps the soul he was alluding to was learning how to use the brakes.