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The Foundations of Buddhism: Understanding Suffering and Craving · Gabriel Ellis, PhD | The Curious Mind Podcast

0:01
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Curious Mind
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podcast. My name is Gabriel Ellis.
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I'm a psychotherapist and a scholar of Buddhism.
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And in the past episodes, I was highlighting some aspects of
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original Buddhism. And mostly I was focusing on
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what was not original and I was highlighting some specific
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contexts historically, the Society of that time.
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And if you have not seen or heard these episodes, then I
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encourage you to go back and to kind of lay the foundations for
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the descriptions that I have today.
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And today I would like to focus on what indeed would be parts of
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original off historical Buddhism, what probably does go
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back to the historical Buddha. And to start with, there is one
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of the key concepts that probably many people associate
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with original Buddhism of the Pali suttas, which is the Four
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Noble Truths. And the Four Noble Truths are
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one, there is suffering, Second, there is a cause of suffering.
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Third, there's an end to suffering.
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And 4th, there's the path that leads to this end of suffering,
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the term suffering. Some of you might know this
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comes from the Pali Dukha. Luca is difficult to understand
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and to translate. Suffering is an established
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translation. Another translation is
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unsatisfactoriness, so that there is unsatisfactoriness,
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there's a cause for it, the end of it, and a path that leads to
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the end of it. Now those truths in Buddhism, we
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can assume that other spiritual directions had those truths as
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well. So for example, when I described
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the original or of that time, the Jainism of the time, the
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Nagantas as they're called in the Pali Sutas, they also had a
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path to salvation, a path to liberation.
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And the path to that was to end karma.
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Karma to be non violent in an extreme form.
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So they would be have no difficulties to say that there
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is suffering, there's a cause for suffering which is karma,
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there is an end to suffering and there is a path to leads that
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leads to that. Otherwise they wouldn't have a
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spiritual tradition, a spiritual practice in some form.
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So in itself, this framework that there are four truths of
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the problem and the path that leads to the solution of the
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problem is most likely not Buddhist.
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What is Buddhist is the details of that, what was for Buddhism,
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what was for the Buddha the problem, and what was for the
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Buddha the end, the path that leads to the end of this
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problem. So let's go into the details
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because here we can most likely identify the original aspects of
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Buddhism. So the first one there is
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suffering. OK, the details of this are in
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some suitors. They give examples for what it
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means. Birth, rebirth is suffering, old
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age is illness and death is suffering.
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To be exposed to what is disliked or to be associated
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with what is disliked or with people that I don't like.
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To be separated from what I do like, or to be separated from
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the people that I like. This is suffering and not
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getting what you want. Not getting what you wish.
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That is suffering. Also, this is probably not very
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controversial, and many ascetic spiritual traditions at that
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time might have agreed to that. It doesn't need a genius to say
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that sickness is suffering. This is trivial to say.
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Also, to be separated from what I don't like to be associated
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with, with what I like, to be associated with something that I
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don't like. Also, that doesn't take a genius
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to formulate this. This formula, though, ends with
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something that is more authentically Buddhist and might
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come from the Buddha himself. It says, in brief, the five
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dimensions of identification are suffering.
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Now there's a wording that you might not recognize.
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It's a wording that I render with the original party.
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In short, it says the punch upadana, kanda punch 5 puncha 5
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upadana is can. You can translate it as
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attachment for example. I translate it as identification
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and kanda. The kandas are literally
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translated something like groups or heaps I call it for some
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reason that I will describe later on as dimensions.
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So you could say that the Buddha says in my words, yes, all of
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these like earth and age and illness and death and so on,
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This is suffering. What I see as the root of this
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is my free translation. What I see as the root of this
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is the five dimensions of identification that these are
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suffering. Now what are those five condas?
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What are those 5 dimensions? One is form, also translated as
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body. Now I want to interpret this
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because by just reading the text alone, it's difficult to
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understand what the meaning is. That you can find, of course
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many interpretations. My interpretation is because I
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come from a psychological and philosophical perspective.
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My interpretation is that I am this appearance.
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The child looks into the mirror and recognizes its image as
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itself. I am this appearance or I am
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this body, and as this body I will experience identified with
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this body. I will experience and I will
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like and dislike what is good for the body.
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I will like what is bad for the body.
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I will dislike what is threatening to the body.
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I will dislike. So the fact that I identify with
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it and my following assessments, my predictions, my thoughts, I
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base on the identification with the body that this is me.
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This is the problem. This is the problem with
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identifying with the Poly term is rupa literally form or shape,
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a bit symbolically taken as the body.
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Another quite normal example is I'm 49 years old now when I see
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that my body is changing, identifying with this body, I
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don't want this body to change. I don't want it to look less
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attractive. And so because my assessment of
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my body that I look at less attractive than 1015 years ago,
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because of that I will suffer. So it's the identification with
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this shape, with this body that brings the suffering.
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The 2nd dimension of identification is called vedana,
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which is usually translated as feelings, sometimes as
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sensations. I identify with those feelings.
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These feelings are mine. What is coming inside of me,
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what is appearing, emerging inside of me.
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This feeling, this is me or it's part of me.
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And as a being with this feelings, I will act.
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Based on this feelings. I will act if I don't like
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something, I will suffer if I like something.
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I would want to have this or to continue to have this.
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This identification brings me suffering.
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The third dimension is what is in partly called Sanya, which
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are perceptions including thoughts.
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And also here this is an aspect of identification.
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The perceptions that I have are mine.
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I will base my judgements, I will base my actions, my
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assessments. I will base on the perceptions
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that I have and I will feel and live accordingly.
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I will act accordingly by the perception of right now we're in
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the heat of the summer, so I have a sweaty skin and this
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perception that I have, I accept this as something that happens
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to me. It doesn't just happen to
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perceptions, It happens to an owner of these perceptions.
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And so I identify with these and hear the Buddha says this is
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suffering. The third one is Sankara in
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Pali. This is difficult to translate,
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but for the sake of simplicity, it's called intentions.
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If I analyze now, apart from Buddhism, if I analyze what is
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essentially me, many people apart from, for example,
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feelings or the shape or the body will come to the
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conclusion, well, it's my, my willpower, my intentions.
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This is what is uniquely me, and this is Sakara.
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The intentions are me or they're part of me or the representative
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of me. I will base my satisfaction and
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frustration on how I can apply my will or my intentions.
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I and then this way I identify with the intentions that are
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happening inside of me. 5th aspect is Binyana in Pali which
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we can translate as awareness consciousness.
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But there is an aspect of sense awareness, sense oriented sense
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organ oriented consciousness. I am awareness.
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This is so intuitively true. What else should it be?
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What else should I be than my awareness, my consciousness?
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So of course I base who I am and what I am on my awareness, and I
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will accordingly think and act and feel.
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And so there's another very fundamental aspect of
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identification that I base my understanding of who and what I
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am on. So this is the original first
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noble truth of Buddhism. There is suffering and the
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suffering is connected with identifications on all those 5
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dimensions. The second truth of Buddhism is
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that the cause or the origin of this suffering of
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unsatisfactoriness is the Poly term is tanha and literally
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translated its thirst. So it's craving, its desire.
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This is the source of it. And here also we might think,
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well, yes, desire. Many ascetics, basically all
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ascetics are against desire and mostly sensual desire.
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They were practicing it. This is why they were doing
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those fastings and enduring the pain that, for example, the
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Nygantas, the giants did. So this is not very original.
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What is original is the explicit description of what this thirst
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was. This tanha is and, and we can
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assume original Buddhism. It is threefold.
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It is the thirst, the craving, the desire for pleasure, for a
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self continuity and a self discontinuity.
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What does it mean? A self continuity, Pali Bava?
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A self continuity in the sense that I want certain states,
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certain states of mind, certain states of being.
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I want them to continue. When I feel good, I want that to
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continue. When I feel bad, I want that to
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discontinue. So I crave for pleasure, for
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well-being, and also I crave that what is good prolongs and
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what is bad stops. This is the second truth in
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Buddhism. This is what probably goes back
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to original Buddhism. The third truth, the end of
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suffering is trivial after we had the 1st 2, which is the end
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of Tana, the end of craving, of desire, of thirst.
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There's something, there's something exhaustive, exhausting
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in thirst. It's not just a neutral being,
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neutral state of wanting something.
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I'm craving for it. So this was the 3rd truth.
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It's also not explained very much.
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And the Buddhist text, the 4th one is the path to the end of
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suffering. And here we have eight factors,
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right view, right thoughts, right speech, right action,
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right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right you
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can say immersion, you can say concentration.
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The term is samadhi here. This list ends with this 8th
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limb. Today I will describe only the
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first one, right view. Also here, those labels of right
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view, right thought they might not be incredibly original.
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Many ascetics would say that yes, of course it has something
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to do with the way I think, the way I feel, the way that I act,
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of what I do, what I see right and so on.
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Here again, it is important of how Buddhism, how the Buddha
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described, what those details are.
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Right view is the right way of seeing things.
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This is the beginning of the path.
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And it has been pointed out in many commentaries, by many
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Buddhist teachers, by many meditation teachers, that this
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is the crucial, a crucial aspect of the path.
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It's basically we can assume that it starts with proper
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instruction. What are the main what are the
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important, the fundamental spiritual concepts that Buddha
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that Buddhism is teaching me that helped me to start and kick
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off my spiritual journey? There is no clear definition of
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what right view is. There are many different
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definitor aspects in the Buddhist texts.
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I will point out a few that makes the most sense as the core
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of what right view proper instruction about the spiritual
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concepts that's supposed to catapult to start my progress,
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my spiritual progress. One, a proper understanding of
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the root and the 1st and the 2nd noble truths are such an
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instruction. What explicitly is suffering?
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Identification with those 5 dimensions.
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This is suffering. What is the root of suffering,
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Thirst, craving. So this is already something to
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reflect on. If I wanted to start my practice
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with awareness, with re understanding, learning and you
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what my setup is, then it's a good start to become aware of
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where do I identify myself with? What do I identify myself with?
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Which identifications do I come with from the get go?
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So the natural desire for identification with the Khandas,
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with those dimensions of identification, this is the
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root, this is to understand, this is right view.
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Another aspect of right view is and this is goes into the core
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of what makes the Buddha's teachings so difficult to grasp.
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At the same time this is at the root of the teachings is that
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there is neither a pure stable existence nor a pure stable non
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existence. There is no pure stable essence.
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There is no non essence. But at the same time this goes
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counter our intuitive understanding of the world.
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Apparently we have stable objects here.
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And even inside of me some things are stable.
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One is the designation. I don't wake up and think that
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I'm someone else. I refer to myself as me with my
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name. My past doesn't seem to change
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my friendships and also on. But of course the material
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surrounding as well. The laptops stays the same.
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The table that it's on, walls, the earth, the sun.
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Why is there no essence there for the Buddha?
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Basically this is based on a misunderstanding, a
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misperception. The truth of the matter for him
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is, and in a way it doesn't depend so much on the wording,
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but in a way this must be. At the root of historical
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Buddhism is that things exists based on conditions.
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They don't have a self nature that is just stable and
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continues to be stable. Things exist because the
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conditions for it to exist are met.
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And here it becomes clear what I said in the first episode of the
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series. This is a teaching for
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monastics. This is not a teaching for
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normal people. This implies such an extreme
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departure from our intuitive, normal, everyday life
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understanding of the world that it needs a special motivation to
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be able to consider this at all, and we can assume that there
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were many conversations and elucidations about this point.
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In Pali, the term for this central concept is Petitia
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Sambopada. Often we have a translation as
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dependent origination. Sometimes we see dependent Co
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arising. I call it for my own
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understanding conditioned emergence.
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Keep in mind this is teaching for monastics or originally it
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was a teaching for monastics. I will give you.
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A an abbreviated, interpreted version of this, it is difficult
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to make sense of the Poly wording, as true as the
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principle probably is. There are also many versions in
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the Poly. There are short versions, there
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are versions with 12 elements, versions with 10 elements.
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So it's not an incredibly consistent, consistent concept.
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Scholarly research shows that probably there was a core of a
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few elements in that that the 12 limb or the 10 limb concept was
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not original but was put together.
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So here I give you a summary of those limbs.
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For all phenomena to appear, there are causes, and if this
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causes go away, this phenomenon disappears.
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For example, there is in the microphone in which I speak,
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there are some elements that are held together by glue, and if
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this glue disappears, those elements, those parts will have
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no 'cause no reason to stay together, so it will fall apart.
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This is the main idea of conditioned emergence.
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Humans have the possibility for consciousness.
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This is how it starts. There's a potential for
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consciousness. Out of this general possibility
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emerges the home base of century of the sensory realm.
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The term for home base is ayatana.
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This is something that has been underestimated in the past of
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how central this concept is. I dedicated an article to this
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which I can link in the description to bring this to
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awareness again. So there is consciousness in
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this consciousness, this potential for consciousness.
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It doesn't doesn't just go anywhere.
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There are many possibilities for consciousness to go.
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And people who develop deep profound meditation, they go
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into different realms of consciousness.
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But as a default, we as humans are primed to be focused on and
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to be fixated on this base, this home base of the sensory realm,
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which means this is where we sit, this is our home base.
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This is our departure point. This is where we consider our
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perceptions to be, our consciousness to be as
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perceiving perceptions from our sense organs and our thoughts.
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This home base of the sensory realm implies the sensitivity to
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the sense awareness. So there's a potential, and this
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potential is then actualized with actual sense awareness,
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with actual sense impressions. And based on this sense
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impressions, distinct feelings come up.
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So there is the sense perception of heat right now, and the
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feeling is discomfort identifying with those feelings,
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craving and desire for nice feelings, and craving and desire
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for the end of bad feelings come up.
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This is what I mentioned before in the truths.
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And then I identify with those likes and dislikes.
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I am someone who likes heat. I am someone who hates cold.
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And from that attachment follows.
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So I want those things to repeat.
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I want certain things in the future to happen and I act upon
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it. I direct my intentions towards
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that and this, all these different elements that have
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emerged based on consciousness. Based on consciousness, then the
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home base of the central realm emerged.
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Based on this sensitivity to and possibility of sense awareness,
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the actual sense impressions take hold.
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Based on these emotions can happen.
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Based on these emotions, craving can happen.
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Based on this craving, I can form attachments.
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This is the individual that we think we are, this layered
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collection of causal or dependently emerging aspects.
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This is the individual with its desires and attachments.
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And here Buddhism says, and probably not only Buddhism at
25:37
that time, equipped with this, once we have an individual, this
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is an individual that can be reborn.
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Like I said in the first episode to the introduction of original
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Buddhism, the Buddha lived in a geographical region where the
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belief and rebirth was common, at least among ascetics.
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So this is dependent origination or the conditioned emergence as
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I call it. And we can assume that this was
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a central aspect of Buddhism. It challenged the normal view
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that all things exist with their own nature.
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And some of the ascetics we know from the Buddhist texts, some of
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the competing ascetics had the belief that that there is no
26:32
essence at all, nothing exists. Essentially the Buddha said no,
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there's something in between. And this in between is that
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things do exist, but only based on conditions.
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And if those conditions fall away, then those things as
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exist, fall away. And of course, this makes sense
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in the context of the Buddhist teachings.
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Remember the Four Noble Truths, as I laid them out before, In
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order to have a solution for the problem from the Buddhist
27:05
perspective, we now only have to understand what the conditions
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are under which suffering comes up and we have to change those
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conditions. The last aspect that I want to
27:24
focus on that is intrinsically connected to the Four Noble
27:29
Truths and to the conditioned emergence is the aspect of the
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so-called not self. This conditionality sheds a
27:43
certain light on what we experience, and now especially
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we go back to the spiritual partitioners.
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Every spiritual attainment is due to some change or another
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because of the conditions. And because every spiritual,
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spiritual attainment is based on conditions that I did with my
28:09
practice, the state, the resulting state is impermanent.
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I cannot create with an conditioned and impermanent
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practice. I cannot create something that
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is unconditioned, that is permanent.
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But liberation per definition has to be permanent.
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It makes no sense to achieve something that is good for a
28:30
while and then breaks apart. Slash.
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This is something that we had with a belief of rebirth and
28:39
heavenly realm. From Buddhist perspective, it's
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just from original Buddhist perspective, it just doesn't
28:45
make sense. OK, I'm meditated and as a fruit
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of this meditation, I was reborn in a divine realm, beautiful,
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but the conditions of it fall away, which means those, this
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buffer that I have created with my meditation, the merit that I
29:03
have created with this meditation will be used up and
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then I will be reborn again as a human or an animal or whatever.
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So what was the use? It was just a delay.
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It was a waste of time. It doesn't make sense to strive
29:17
for a impermanent attainment in Buddhism, but if all attainments
29:26
and all spiritual progress is impermanent, then this is a
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major frustration for anyone who seeks a permanent liberation or
29:35
immortality. This is dukkha.
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This is suffering for the spiritual seeker.
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And what is spiritually dissatisfying cannot be a
29:48
reliable vehicle for liberation. It doesn't satisfy my spiritual
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needs, cannot be a reliable vehicle for liberation.
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And what I described now is a concept that it has a name,
30:08
Tilakana, the three marks of existence.
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But this is not an old name. This was a label that was given
30:14
later to these elements. It consists of three terms,
30:19
Anicha, impermanence, tuka we know already, suffering,
30:23
unsatisfactoriness and anatta. Anatta is not self.
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But in this context, and I described the understanding of
30:34
this in my dissertation in more detail, it does not only mean
30:39
not self, it also mean a not non reliable vehicle for liberation.
30:48
If there was a self, then I could attach myself to it, or I
30:52
could free it. I could discard of the layers
30:59
around it that make me blind and then that would be it.
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There would be something permanent, there would be
31:04
something reliable and this would be liberation, something
31:09
permanent. But because there is no
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phenomenon that is permanent and non permanence is something
31:21
tragic for the spiritual seeker, something that is impermanent
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and tragic as a spiritual seeker, it cannot be a reliable
31:33
vehicle for liberation. This is a not now when I see
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that, when I understand that, then a major frustration
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appears, a disillusionment, a disillusionment with anything
31:49
that I'm hoping for as the vehicle for my liberation, for
31:53
my practice. And this has a term, it's
31:56
nibida. It's a profound disillusionment.
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And after that, there is another consequence of this, which is
32:04
called the raga, a dispassion, a detachment, a dispassion and
32:10
detachment with all of those promises, with all of those
32:14
mundane things, none of it is worth clinging to because none
32:20
of it will grant me liberation. And here, keep in mind, this is
32:24
a teaching for monastics, for ascetics, for spiritual seekers
32:29
who dedicate their life to it. And so I need to realize as a
32:36
direct consequence of this, what I am unconsciously and
32:41
consciously attached to. AM I still attached to food?
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Am I attached to my body? Am I attached to my few
32:50
belongings? Am I attached to fame, to
32:55
acknowledgement from others? All of this I get so profoundly
33:00
detached from, disillusioned. Why am I doing this now?
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Of course, as also the conditioned dependent
33:09
origination showed, we come with a certain set up.
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We humans, beings in general, they come with a certain set up.
33:17
So it's not only about catching myself when I'm attaching myself
33:23
to food, as if food would give me some spiritual liberation.
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It's also about understanding what I came with.
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For example, I might intellectually I might
33:34
understand that aim and recognition and acknowledgement
33:38
is not a tool for liberation. But I'm thrown into this world.
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I'm thrown into this mental apparatus that brings with it
33:47
the desire for acknowledgement. So my task is twofold, to not
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form new attachments with the hopes, implicit hopes, not
33:58
conscious with implicit hope, like a reflex, as if this is
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going to save me. And I have to understand what
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this mental machine, with this apparatus came with, which
34:11
biases, which attachments. And I have to find a way to go
34:16
against the grain of nature and to decondition myself, to
34:21
liberate myself from those natural instinctual attachments
34:27
and desires. So this is the core of original
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Buddhism. Now in the next episode, I will
34:37
follow on the other parts of the path.
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It was an hateful path, right view, as I described it here
34:46
today, we can assume that this is fundamentally the Buddha
34:53
speaking here. It is based on such a weird and
34:58
unnatural assumption about the nature of things that they are
35:01
conditioned that there is a true original voice speaking here
35:06
that was probably not shared by other spiritual traditions.
35:10
And as a consequence is directly linked with the tasks at hand of
35:17
what we have to do in order to free ourselves from the illusion
35:22
that our natural or acquired attachments will bring forth
35:26
some sort of liberation. In the next episode, I will
35:30
focus on the practice, the further aspects of the path.
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How does it continue and how does it end with liberation and
35:41
the meditation that I use for that.
35:44
I hope you found interest in what I had to share today.
35:48
Send me questions if there's something that you did not
35:51
understand, I will try to answer it next time.
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And so I'll leave you with my best wishes for today.
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Goodbye.