“I could not help but ask; I had no hope of an answer, having always known that there is no answer, but it seemed to me that this woman would at least understand the terms of my question” Margaret Drabble in “Millstone”
Rosamund, the questioner in the quote above, is sitting helplessly in a hospital canteen while her innocent baby suffers in a nearby ward. In Rosamund we are confronted with the agonies of an anxious mother; as she waits for her little baby, she recognizes the uselessness of explanations but cried out for comfort, for understanding.
There is a great difference between talking about the 'issue of suffering' as a detached observer, when we are comfortably healthy, and the agonized cries of the sufferer. In the midst of suffering we cannot afford the luxury of debating the pros and cons of the ‘logical problem of suffering’. The sufferer needs a more practical way of dealing with his or her own suffering, of coming to terms with it.
The Buddha recognized this need. His response to suffering was a practical way of coping with the facts, rather than a theoretical attempt to explain or justify the presence of so much suffering in the world. An incident from his life, ‘The Story of the Mustard Seed’ illustrates this shift in emphasis.
There was a woman, named Gotami, whose child had just died. She was so upset by this that she lost her reason completely. She went everywhere trying to bring her child back to life. Her friends felt sorry for her and said, 'Gotami, you should go and see the Buddha. Perhaps he can help you.' Thus she went before the Buddha still holding her child in her arms. 'Please bring him back to life for me,' she cried. Very gently the Buddha answered her: 'I can help you, Gotami, but first you must bring me something. I need one small mustard seed. However, it must come from a house where no one has ever died.'
Gotami quickly went in search of a mustard seed. Wherever she went, though, the same thing happened. Everyone wanted to help her, but in every family she visited someone had died. One person told her, 'Three years ago I lost my daughter.' Another said, 'My brother died here yesterday.' It was always the same.
At the end of the day she returned to the Buddha. 'What have you found, Gotami?' he asked. 'Where is your mustard seed? And where is your son? You are not carrying him any longer.' She answered, 'O Buddha, today I have discovered that I am not the only one who has lost a loved one. Everywhere people have died. I see how foolish I was to think I could have my son back. I have accepted his death, and this afternoon I buried him. Now I have returned to you to hear your teachings. I am ready to listen.'
RISING ABOVE SUFFERING
For the Buddha, theoretical questions on suffering serve no useful purpose. It is like the wounded man who refuses to have the arrow removed from his side until he knows who fired it, from what distance, with what kind of bow, etc. That man would die without knowing any of the answers. This approach to suffering reflects the Buddha's own life-experiences, his sudden confrontation with the existence of suffering in the form of a sickness, an old person and a corpse. His response was not to ask theoretical questions but to look for a way to rise above suffering.
In this teaching on suffering the Buddha saw himself as a doctor who diagnoses the illness and then offers a cure. His teaching is contained in the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS:
1. Suffering (Dukkha) touches everything in life. Instead of running smoothly, life is filled with disappointments, illness, death, and conflict. There is a general feeling of unsatisfactoriness and restlessness. For example, to want something badly is suffering.
2. Unsatisfactoriness (suffering) is caused by desire (i.e. craving after things). If we didn't become attached to things (our health, our wealth, other people) we wouldn't suffer when they are taken away. It is the feeling that we have a right to things that makes us suffer when they are no longer ours. The Buddha pointed to a 'stop craving and relax' mentality.
3. Suffering will end when we stop craving after things.
4. The cure. To stop craving, and thus suffering, we must follow the ‘Eightfold Path’, which aims at disciplining our life in a positive way.
Questions
1. Looking back at what Rosamund said: How might understanding someone's suffering differ from providing an explanation?
2. According to the Buddha, if we did not become attached to things we would not suffer when they are taken away. It is the feeling that we have a right to things that makes us suffer when they are no longer ours. Try examining the truth of this idea by listing examples of suffering that fit this explanation