A Buddhist View of Pride - Affliction, Sin or Goodness?

A recent radio discussion between 3 christian ministers discussed Pride as one of the 7 deadly sins. In Buddhism it is also listed as a key afliction, up there with attachment, aversion, greed and anger. But pride is also a source of strength and achievement, isn't it? This lead me to explore the way in which Mahayana Buddhism addresses Pride.

As with all aspects of the Middle Way, the object itself has no inherent characteristics - it depends on the motivation behind observing the object. So Pride is both "Good" and "Bad".

Once again, I found Shantideva's Bodhisattvacharyavatara (Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life) gave some very clear distinctions. Whether the object of our pride is wealth, accomplishment, spiritual practice, children, appearance and so on, we can approach it from either of these points of view:
1. Self Importance: I am proud because I am wealthier, more successful, a better spiritual being, etc. than you. I will let everyone know that I have Pride in my achievements so they will think more of me and less of others. My Pride is based on external perceptions.
2. Self Confidence (I don't fully like this translation, but it serves its purpose): I am content with where I am with my wealth, status, practice, etc. and I am proud in that. I can have that Pride without having to broadcast it, and I can move on. My Pride is purely internal.

In contemplating this post, I thought about my pride. Am I taking Pride in putting up a post that I can say a thousand people have read, or does my Pride lie in having meditated on an aspect of me and recorded it, not caring if it is read at all? Maybe my achievement is having considered what is one of the five major afflictions and come to a better awareness of my own progress on my path to becoming enlightened.
But wait! Just by saying this, am I leaning towards Self Importance rather than Self Confidence? Oh well, back to contemplating the beautiful words and poetry of Shantideva!
Thus ends this post. May whatever virtue or merit that derives from this posting be for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Yours until next time, Vajramate.

Of Five Skandhas, Emptiness and Prajnaparamita

At many teachings the Heart Sutra, or Prajnaparamita, is recited at the beginning. In our centre we recite it before every meditation session and at a five day teaching of the Stages of Meditation by His Holiness the Dalai Lama it was chanted at the beginning of each day, each time in a different language.

Although I joined in the recitations, it was some years before I acknowledged I had little idea of what it was about, except at a very superficial level, so I set about doing some research.

The teachings are complex and not within the charter of this blog. A good starting point to explore the actual teachings is the Dalai Lama's Essence of the Heart Sutra published by Wisdom Publications.

I will just try to convey the essence of what it was that I gathered that help make the recitation of the Heart Sutra much more meaningful to me.

To put it in perspective the Heart Sutra, in just one and a half A4 pages, encompasses all the teachings of the Buddha. So it is incredibly intense and dense.

The essence is contained in these words:

"The five skandhas (or aggregates) are empty of intrinsic existence. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness is not other than form, form too is not other than emptiness. Likewise, feelings, perceptions, mental formations (or volition) and consciousness are all empty."

At his point I was lost. This is what I have come to understand to some extent.

The five skandhas or aggregates are form, feeling, perception, mental formation/volition and consciousness. Mental formation is the aspect that comes from past lives and volition comes from our actions in this life. It is the combination of these skandhas that defines the illusory "Self" that we erroneously identify as who we are. "Self" is just a convenient term to describe a collection of two or more of these five factors. The Heart Sutra teaching is that the true or ultimate state is non-self or emptiness or shunyata. As each of the aggregates is in constant change, they are impermanent. So therefore is our traditional concept of Self.

At this point I came to understand the importance of realising that the Self we perceive and cling to is nothing more than an illusion, which the Mind needs to comprehend and transform to achieve reality, emptiness and purity.

It was when I came to Peter Della Santina's Tree of Enlightenment discourse that I became aware of the importance of understanding these skandhas.

In our impure condition of Mind, the skandhas are associated respectively with the five afflictions; ignorance, pride, attachment, envy and aversion. These in turn have these associations; ignorance- the realm of animals; pride – the realm of gods; attachment – the realm of hungry ghosts; envy – the realm of demigods; and aversion – the realm of hell beings. Note that these afflictions result in rebirth in the corresponding realms.

In the Perfection of Wisdom literature and Vajrayana teachings, as the Bodhisattva progresses towards Buddhahood the five skandhas are purified and transformed to appear in the form of the five celestial Buddhas. In Vajrayana physiology each Buddha is associated with a chakra. These are: form –Vairochana on the crown; feeling –Ratnasambhava at the navel; perception –Amitabha at the throat; volition –Amoghasiddhi at the genitals; and consciousness –Akshobhya at the heart.

Each of the Buddhas represents the transformation from the impure skandha to a specific knowledge; respectively reality, equality, discrimination, accomplishment and transcendental knowledge.

In this post I have set out to show the significance of understanding the skandhas or aggregates and the transformations that occur in our Mind as we progress towards Buddhahood. For me this understanding has enabled me to better grasp the various teachings as I receive them. It has also highlighted to me the need to better understand the roles of the five Buddha families in the scheme of practices.

The Tree of Enlightenment can be downloaded from http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dsantina/tree/

Be aware it is a very scholarly discourse.

Thus ends this post. May whatever virtue or merit that derives from this posting be for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Yours until next time, Vajramate.

The Three Afflictions: Ignorance, Attachment, Aversion

One of the hardest question I get asked is "What is Buddhism about?" My own journey has been through personal development, some philosophy, psychotherapy and then into Buddhism. For me right now Buddhism is about finding a better way to live my life and come to grips with what doesn't work for me, at the same time finding ways I can be of service to other sentient beings. While we westerners might see it as taming the ego, Buddhists see it as a more active process called Mind Training.

Buddhist philosophy deals with the suffering created through our grasping at the concept of a separate and unique Self and the release from suffering in the ultimate reality of Non-Self. But that, like Emptiness, is a topic for further down the path.

The initial teachings deal with a whole bunch of issues we experience as human beings, many of which we are totally unaware or which totally consume us. The labels are familiar – anger, greed, craving, fear, avoidance, procrastination – on and on it goes.

If we choose to go down the Mahayana path, what we are choosing is to rediscover within ourselves a nature of loving kindness and compassion towards all sentient beings. It is through this we move towards the path of the bodhisattvas, working for the benefit of all sentient beings, and ultimately realising our own inherent Buddha nature.

In my initial years I was confused by the terminology. Were my problems the result of afflictions, poisons, obstructions or illusions? How many were there – 3? 5? 7? 84,000? How could I overcome them if I didn't know and understand what they were and how they applied to me? Then I came across teachings that talked about the 3, 5, 7, 10 or 84,000 antidotes to the afflictions. More confusion!

It came as a great relief to me one day to realise that I really only had to deal with three labels. Ignorance, Attachment and Aversion.

Ignorance can be summarised as "We don't know what we don't know!" The teachings are all aimed at gradually expanding our understanding of what is suffering, how we create our suffering and the paths available to us to address these conditions and move towards happiness. The fundamental Mahayana objective is the establishment of loving kindness and compassion as the basis of how we live our daily lives for the benefit of others. Dispelling ignorance is achieved by leading us to understand the afflictions or poisons of attachment and aversion.

I started to better understand attachment when I came to realise that there are many different ways we can experience it. Common labels are greed, craving, desire, selfishness. We may be attached to a desire for a variety of material things – cars, houses, objects. Then there are attachments to relationships or a desire to be admired or loved. Or we may become attached to an idea – "my religion is the only true religion" or "my race is the only worthy race". The suffering we experience manifests in many ways. When we don't have something, we suffer until we get it – and when we have it, we suffer in case we lose it. Resistance to change is a symptom of attachment. You can even have an attachment to having no attachments in that you may feel pride in your achievement and become attached to that pride.

By the way, there is a reason why you wouldn't get a Buddhist to vacuum your carpets – they don't vacuum in the corners because they have no attachments!

Likewise for aversion. Aversion manifests itself as anger, revulsion, hatred, dislike, fear and even indifference. Resistance to change is again a major indication that aversion may be playing a role in your life.

So – how can we apply the understanding that our suffering is generally about attachment or aversion? It is thought that in the process of getting through our busy days, 95% of the time we are in a neutral state, neither experiencing attachment or aversion. Seems to be somewhat a waste of time- or even a lifetime?

The first step is being open to awareness. If you are experiencing disturbing feelings, work out whether it is a form of attachment or aversion. If this is not clear, then sit with it, meditate on it, until it becomes clearer.

Once identified, you can then contemplate or meditate on what you have been taught on how to deal with it. For example, an antidote for greed is generosity. When you become aware that your current disquiet has an undercurrent of greed, contemplate or commit to an act of generosity. It may be a prayer for the happiness of all beings, a simple act of kindness or the giving of an offering of flowers or incense or a material gift. As you do this, observe what it is about that transformation from greed to generosity that makes you happier or eases the intensity of your suffering.

Repeated awareness of the nature of how you experience attachment and aversion and how you can transform those experiences to experiences of loving kindness and compassion will accumulate as training of the mind.

To use an expression I have heard, it is about habituation. We make a habit of practicing awareness and a habit of applying the antidote. Over time we habituate the practice of loving kindness and compassion. The afflictions of attachment and aversion are slowly shaken loose and we become more content in our circumstances as they are. The happiness we thus experience is real and lasting.

Keeping it simple should make it easier to focus on the awareness and practice, and not get caught up in trying to understand everything from the start.