As mentioned in the previous essay, happiness is a state of mind that can be experienced for relatively brief moments but not retained for any length of time. Philosophers and theologians have grappled with this fact of life throughout recorded history and numerous reasons have been adduced. For the ancient Persians it was simple because they believed in a dualism of the forces of light versus those of darkness where sometimes one side and then the other would win. This cosmic battle involves all of nature and includes the human race.

The situation became more complex when Jewish monotheism rejected the idea of dualism and instead postulated one Almighty and benevolent God. This did not change the facts of life and misfortunes persisted. The Jewish answer to the vicissitudes of life was the concept of sin. The person had disobeyed the will of God and needed to be punished. This notion also had its merits but fell short of the mark because disease and other tragedies befall even saints. The attempt of Jewish theologians to address this problem is the well known Book of Job. When Job questioned why the Lord was piling more and more miseries upon him the answer he got was not particularly satisfactory. To put it simply, “Who are you to question Me?” may well reflect the state of our insignificance in the context of the cosmos but it is of no major help to a person in distress. But all was not lost for Job because the Lord did provide a happy ending of sorts when Job got more than all of his previous property back including brand new sons and daughters. A more modern answer to Job’s question was provided by the well known author Rabbi Kushner, who had also been confronted with a personal tragedy of major proportions. It is contained in his little book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Since the Lord’s answer to Job did not address Dr. Kushner’s justified anguish he fell back on the ancient Greek notion of Moros (fate or destiny) against which even Zeus was helpless. This idea may also have its merits but it does conflict with that of an Almighty God. Since it is important, however, to end one’s contemplations on the problems of mankind on an optimistic note Dr. Kushner assured us that the Lord will never put more burdens on us then we can carry.

St. Paul solved the problem by expanding the concept of sin to include newborn babies. According to this opinion all of us come into this world tainted by the disobedience of Adam who brought death into this world. By firmly believing in Jesus who by his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection has atoned for all past, present and future sins we overcome death and enter into an eternal life of the blessed. The “original sin” concept was subsequently elaborated on by Christian theologians and as a genetic defect it had to be expunged by baptizing the newborn. Unfortunately baptism early or later in life did not lead to prolonged states of happiness by the believers. The imminent arrival of the Kingdom of God announced by John the Baptist, Jesus, St. Paul and others did not materialize either. On the contrary the Jews lost whatever meager independence they had in Jerusalem and Judea for nearly two millennia. Christians, ignoring the teachings of Jesus, delighted in that historical fact and regarded it as the just punishment of the nation by God for having been stubborn and denying that Jesus had been the promised Messiah. Since this denial persists to this day and both can’t be right, conflicts between the two religious systems of thought are unavoidable.

Christianity fared better as a religion but only by initially accommodating itself to the secular power structure and later on developing its own. The persistence of evil even in nominally Christian realms did require further explanations so the ancient Persian Ahriman as adversary of the god of light was resurrected under the Greek name of Satan. His main reason for existence is to torment the human race and especially the believers when they stray from the straight and narrow. The name and concept were taken over by the Muslims where he is referred to as Shaitan. In the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance Satan was a very popular excuse when bad things happened and Luther, especially, was tormented by him throughout his life. Satan’s wiles, which included the Church of Rome, and subsequently the Jews when they failed to listen to him just as they had to St. Paul, had to be resisted. These efforts made him quite pugnacious but did little to promote personal happiness. Jesus’ admonition, “resist not evil” had found no echo in his soul. Since this particular commandment goes directly against the very fiber of humanity, which demands retribution for genuine or perceived misfortunes, it continues to be ignored in the private as well as political arena to the detriment of all of us.

With the so-called period of Enlightenment, “secularism” arose. The emergence of empirical science first did away with the “ghosties and ghoulies” which had tormented our ancestors, and then their boss the devil. In as much as further scientific endeavors showed that some of the teachings of the Bible were in conflict with emerging facts, the role of God came into question. But when you do away with God you not only remove sin but also the moral conscience that has been built up around it as the foundation and preservation of Western civilization. For “God given” laws “man made” ones were substituted. This process had two disadvantages. One was that it created armies of lawyers whose main function is to find ways to circumvent these laws, while new ones are created on a daily basis. The other is that the absence of a helping or punishing hand from above has left a vacuum in the human mind. I use the word mind instead of soul because when you do away with the concept of God that of the immortal soul also tends to disappear. By the “secularists” this vacuum is now either ignored or filled by the restless “pursuit of happiness” in the material or emotional sphere. This has in turn created rising crime, the drug culture and sexual promiscuity with its attendant dangers to the health of the individual as well as its ill effects on society at large. The so-called “culture war” in the U.S. is the attempt to turn the clock of time back to an era where God reigned supreme and His laws were supposedly obeyed. Since one cannot uninvent science, and its most destructive outgrowth the bomb, these efforts will prove futile and mankind is likely to stumble from one disaster to the next always blaming someone else for misfortunes that are bound to occur.

The Western outlook on life is based on thoughts that were largely hatched in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. The ancient Indians who lived in the foothills of the Himalayans developed different ideas about the origin of the vicissitudes of life. Although the Hindus had a vast pantheon of gods, some good and others bad, they also produced the Upanishads as a basis for moral living. These documents are in some ways opposite in spirit to the Old Testament. While Moses’ laws were intended to create a nation that would conquer territory and amass material fortunes the Indian sages concentrated on the inner life of human beings and the question how harmony can be achieved within a given person. The nation was of no concern. It would take are of itself if all the individuals that make up the nation would behave according to the precepts laid down.

As in all societies eventually the will to power became dominant in some people and so did the critical faculty which gave rise to a splintering of the religion into numerous sects.  Conflicts between the two ruling classes the Brahmins - guardians of the faith - and the Kshatyras – the military, secular arm of government – became inevitable and the misery of the common people persisted. At some point between the 6^th and 5^th century BC a spiritual revolution took place under the leadership of Siddhartha Gautama who became known to the world as the Buddha – the Enlightened One. This is another interesting confluence of terms. In post-Renaissance Europe the “philosophes” found the concept of God unappealing and substituted science under a term that had been coined two thousand years earlier by a different civilization of which they did not as yet have solid notions. Siddhartha had also thought deeply about the reasons why human beings are subject to suffering and had found that putting the blame on the gods was not an adequate way to reduce the problems that living entails. All the human being can do with gods, or God as the case may be, is to ask for forgiveness and beg for help which may or may not be granted. Although he did not put it in these words the concept as expressed in the German language, “Selbst ist der Mann!” arose. The Brahmins had argued endlessly about the “Self” what it is and what it is not but the consensus was that it was Brahma, the ultimate reality and therefore God, as well as its extension in every human soul. Siddhartha who had been endowed with a thoroughly practical mind abhorred religious speculations and tried living by the precepts of the various sects which were then prevalent in India. None of these efforts led to inner peace and the solution to the question why there is so much suffering in this world. At last the answer came with utmost simplicity which is always a hallmark of truth. Suffering is a fact of human existence, it has a cause and when the cause has been eliminated suffering will cease. The way to make suffering disappear is outlined in the Eightfold Noble Path.

So far so good; but when we read that the cause of suffering is desire, it does become more complicated. The human being constantly wants something and the mind flits about like a monkey, desiring now this and immediately thereafter that and if the end of suffering can only be achieved  by giving up everything, including the needs of one’s body, the Western mind has difficulty accepting a philosophy of this type. The rewards of a Nirvana, which when translated literally simply means extinction, are also not particularly appealing.

As an educated European I had a nodding acquaintance with Buddhism but as the lines above indicate it was another “so what” experience until I was invited by Japanese colleagues to go on a lecture tour about various aspects of epilepsy. I was treated royally by my hosts and although the schedule was exacting I shall always be grateful for the courtesies that were extended to me. The tour also took me to Nara the very first capital of Japan and in the evening after dinner I found in the drawer of the nightstand a book “The Teachings of Buddha.”  It had been placed there by the Buddhist Promotion Society of Japan just as the Gideons place Bibles into hotel rooms and Mr. Marriott the Book of Mormon in some of his hotels. When I began reading the book and found the theory of the supremacy of the mind over everything else, the neurologist perked up and decided that I needed to study this book in detail. I was tempted to keep it but then I thought, “No, you don’t start your acquaintance with Buddha by stealing” and reluctantly put it back in the drawer before going to sleep. The next morning on the way to breakfast I passed the gift shop and there was the book on display for purchase. I gladly paid the nominal price and it has become a valuable companion on the trip through life from then on.

On that particular day in Nara there was no lecture scheduled and my local hosts, including one of my former students and the Professor of Neurology with his charming wife, took me to the Deer Park which houses one of the oldest Todaiji temples in Japan and has fortunately survived the ravages of WWII. Inside was a colossal bronze statue of a seated Buddha who stared serenely at the crowd. I was told that it was cast around the 8^th century is 53 feet high and weighs 500 tons. The left hand is depicted with the palm up and I was informed that this expresses his infinite compassion, although an open palm tends to have another connotation in the West.  Since Siddhartha had to beg for his food both ideas are probably right because the giver receives a blessing in return. The right hand is raised in the manner of a stop sign and signifies that it wards off evil.

While I took all this in I also saw a huge wooden post, somewhat off to the left side of the statue, which extended up to the ceiling of the building. It had a relatively small hole in the bottom and little Japanese kids had a great deal of fun crawling through it. It was explained to me that the hole is the size of the Buddha’s nostril and whoever gets through it is saved. But it wasn’t only children that availed themselves of this opportunity adults participated likewise and my hosts, concerned about my spiritual well being urged me to try. Obviously I resisted because there was no way a nearly 6 foot frame of 170 pounds would fit through that narrow tunnel. But they insisted and since I didn’t want to disappoint them I took my jacket off and to the great delight of the on looking crowd laid down on one side with an outstretched arm to demonstrate that this simply wouldn’t work because I was stuck. Never underestimate Japanese perseverance. While I was trying to shove myself through and get a hold of something in that tunnel with my fingers, eager little Japanese pushed at my feet with all their might. The moment my outstretched hand appeared on the other end another group of onlookers grabbed it and with pushing and pulling I emerged eventually to joyous laughter and congratulations, although the work had been theirs rather than just mine. It was a demonstration of Buddhism in action, the hallmark of which is compassion.

I can’t say that there was some kind of spiritual revelation associated with that scene but I was glad to have provided my friends with some moments of happiness and laughter. Nevertheless, a seed was put into the ground on that day and I decided to learn more about Buddhism and Siddhartha, its founder. The words “suffering” and “desire” had turned me off when I first read about Buddhism but when I learned that the word which is translated as “suffering” is “duhkha” in Sanskrit the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. Although duhkha does mean suffering it has considerably wider connotations and in the Dalai Lama’s little book, “The Opening of the Wisdom Eye” these are explained in an endnote. To quote from the book:

“DUHKHA- a very important term. Often rendered as ‘suffering,’ it is then inadequate and we [the translators of the book] have preferred either the cumbersome but more accurate ‘unsatisfactoriness’ or else to leave the word untranslated. Duhkha may be physical (pain) or mental (anguish), it refers to the facts of ‘birth, old age, disease and death,’ to the common enough ‘grief, lamentation, pain, anguish and despair,’ to being ‘conjoined with what one does not like’ and ‘being separated from what one likes, not to getting what one wants.’ The very components of our personality are, because we grasp at them (as ‘I’, as ‘mine’), bound up with Duhkha. ‘Duhkha should be understood’ within one’s ‘own’ mind and body and when it is understood one will know true happiness. Phrases in parentheses in these notes are quoting the words of the Lord Buddha.”

In view of this expanded meaning of the term I shall leave it untranslated in the future. We can now see that duhkha instead of being due to external events is part of our beings and there is no escaping from this companion.  When the roots of the Sanskrit word are explored one finds that it is a composite of “dur” which means “bad” and “kha,” which means “state;” ergo a bad state. When I read this another thought from Egyptian mythology immediately came to mind. It was assumed that every person consisted of two elements: one was the visible body and its actions, the other his “Ka.” This twin was born with him, acted as his invisible “Doppelgaenger” and guardian angel. At death it preceded the person to the Western realm. If we were to render this idea into a modern context we might regard the Ka as a series of computer files which are created by our actions (The Hindu-Buddhist Karma) and which are delivered at death to some central registry which may or may not render a judgment. Thereafter the function of the Ka was to inhabit the statue of the deceased in his mortuary temple, thereby guaranteeing the continuation of life. The soul of the person was the Ba and depicted as a little bird that was released from its earthly bounds. I have often wondered whether the ancient most holy Muslim shrine, the black stone cube in Mecca the Ka’ba, has any connection to these Egyptian ideas. 

But leaving these theoretical speculations aside the concept of duhkha can have considerable implications for daily living. First of all we will come to “expect the unexpected” not out of pessimism but simply as a fact of life that will be with us in some form or other as long we are on this planet. When it comes as minor annoyances we can shrug it off by saying “duhkha” to ourselves and in case of major disasters we will recognize our obligation to deal with the consequences in a constructive manner. The favorite American “blame game,” where everything bad that happens is automatically somebody else’s fault, stops when duhkha is incorporated into one’s daily life. The aggrieved person knows that loss is part of life, can never be fully restituted, and as the saying goes “it’s time to move on.” If more people were to adopt this attitude the numerous lawyers who at this time engage in litigations of genuine or assumed grievances would have to find themselves another profession.

This brings me to the second word I had problems with, “desire.” What is meant is not the wish for ordinary aspects of daily living, but craving and clinging. It is the mentality of “I have to have” regardless of object. When this attitude is abandoned mental freedom is achievable even under adverse circumstances. The advantage of practicing Siddhartha’s insight of the four noble truths and the eightfold noble path is that it does not require a change of one’s religion. They can be lived by a Jew, Muslim or Christian just as much as by an agnostic or atheist. There are no “thou shalts” and there is no prerequisite for belief in a supernatural force that dispenses good or evil.  All that is required is the will to tame the vagaries of one’s mind. The practice does not come easy, however, it needs considerable mental effort and there is no instant Zen. On the other hand it can round out our lives in the West. We tend to be “this world oriented” and ignore what one could call “the eyes closed state” where our fears, hopes and aspirations reside. If we are equally comfortable within ourselves when we are not engaged in frantic activities chasing after the “American dream” of material well being then our conduct in the eyes open state including our scientific pursuits will be in harmony and that ought to be a worthy goal.

The philosophical system called Buddhism has grown quite complex over the centuries. But this is equally true of what one may call the Christology which has arisen over the person of Jesus. Yet when one compares the teachings of Siddhartha and Jesus it is quite apparent that considerable parallels exist, although they did start from different premises, which were conditioned by the milieu they had grown up in. Nevertheless the goal was the same, namely to free the individual from what was called mental stains by Siddhartha and sin by Jesus. It is also interesting to note, that the concept of duhkha as an aspect we are born with has its counterpart in the original sin. The fundamental difference between these two world views is, however, that the Christian religion sees the human being as a tainted fallen creature which has to be redeemed by faith and certain rituals. For the Buddhist the human being is the most desirable state to be born into because only the human brain can apprehend the infinite and strive for the full development of one’s mind which in turn leads to an amelioration of suffering for others.

This point needs to be emphasized because there exists even in learned Christian circles some misunderstanding about what the Buddha tried to accomplish. Pope Benedict XVI, was reported to have referred to Buddhism as “auto-eroticism,” while he was still Cardinal Ratzinger and in charge of defending Catholic dogma. If this report is correct nothing could be further from the truth. Although the Buddhist does spend a great deal of time in meditation this is not solipsism for personal gratification. Auto-eroticism implies love of self but this is precisely the opposite of what the Buddha taught. In Buddhism there is no Self. There are only constantly changing aggregates, which include the human body and mind, and it is therefore foolish to cling to a notion of self. Meditation is performed for the sole purpose of gaining mastery over one’s mind in order to better understand oneself and thereby others. This in turn enables the practitioner to provide genuine help to all.  This is, by the way, also the basis for the Greek admonition on the temple in Delphi, “Know Thyself.” The Christian and Jewish religions demand that “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbor as thyself.” But love cannot be commanded; it is spontaneous emotion and when absent the commandment becomes either a duty or worse, hypocrisy. The Buddhist knows this. He is not ordered, “thou shalt have compassion” but the emotion arises as a direct consequence of his mental training and is therefore genuine.

Let us consider now how our world would be different if the principle of duhkha and its causes had been incorporated into the lives of our political leadership. Apart from clinging, the root causes are: greed, ignorance and delusion. Let us be honest with ourselves. What was the invasion of Iraq really all about? Saddam sat on about half the world’s supply of oil and we wanted it. That was greed because other arrangements for obtaining some of his oil could have been made. The idea that we would be welcomed as liberators was based on ignorance because our neocons who also pushed for the invasion, for reasons of their own,  did not have the faintest inkling how much dislike the U.S. government has earned in the Arab world during the past decades. There were two reasons for the hatred of America among fundamentalists. One was the establishment of military bases in Saudi Arabia, the Muslim Holy Land, which was seen as a precursor to a penetration of Muslim society with the moral decay as presented in our movies and TV shows. The other was our constant unilateral support of the policies of the state of Israel. The fact that we vetoed every single UN Security Council resolution that would have forced the Israeli government to adhere to international legal standards was ignored here but not by the Arabs who see our government simply as an extension of the one that sits in Jerusalem. But in spite of this ignorance of Muslim sensibilities our Iraq policy was pursued with a fervor that can only be called delusional as subsequent events have proven. There is enough duhkha in this world due to natural causes we don’t have to add man made ones.

While personal duhkha resulting from illness, accident or loss of life and property is serious enough, that produced by politicians is immense. This is the reason why governments need to be held accountable. Simply voting the ruling circles out of office is not enough. Accountability should be ongoing while they are in charge of the government. Only under those circumstances can the average person say that we live in freedom and democracy. We would then no longer need to export it by force for “our security” because others will be happy to emulate it on their own turf and under their own cultural values. We also need to look at the forces that control our economy and popular culture. They are based on the precise opposite of the teachings of Buddha. Instead of limiting desires we are egged on to want more and more in the material and sexual fields. That this does not promote happiness but merely increases duhkha, because every unfulfilled wish will create unhappiness in the person, has yet to be learned. But since this is the death knell for capitalistic society, which is ultimately based on greed, this learning experience will be a long and arduous process.