Chan Buddhist Wisdoms
A wise monk once proclaimed the following before his disciples:
Buddha encompasses all suffering, but all suffering is Buddha.
His disciples asked him, "Master, how is it that all suffering is
Buddha?
The master replied, "He held the suffering of all living beings".
A discussion arose, a disciple asked, "Master, the Buddha's
teaching is about overcoming suffering, then how can the great
teacher hold all suffering"?
The monk replied, "Buddha was not born a Buddha, he was born an
Indian prince. Growing up in his father's palace, he noticed the
injustices of life; slowly an opinion solidified in him that
later became the philosophy known today as Buddhism. On his long
and rocky road to "enlightenment" he took on much suffering in
order to better himself, to get closer to his goal."
"Exalted Master, when all suffering fell away from the Buddha,
when he found "enlightenment", was not his sacrifice invaluable
to humanity, to his followers?"
"Yes," spoke the monk, "the sufferings on his path Buddha also
took upon himself for us, his followers on the middle path, he
showed us by his example a way out of the everlasting cycle of
suffering. Thus Buddha encompassed all suffering, but all
suffering was gathered in Buddha."
"O venerable preceptor, the teacher of all teachers established
philosophy when he found "enlightenment". When his successor
Bodhidharma and Hui Neng founded Chan (Zen) Buddhism in Shaolin
Temple, how did the evolution of suffering change?"
The monk answered, "Suffering is a very personal phenomenon, all
living beings suffer, much like the historical Buddha also
suffered. The successors and patriarchs also had their very
individual experiences, different approaches; however, over the
centuries, little or nothing has changed in the original
philosophy. All life is suffering, the truth about suffering
hovers over all people, but through the Buddha's worldview a way
out of the eternal cycle of suffering" is offered.
For modern people of today (21st century), this means that we
will also suffer as long as we have not implemented the Buddha's
teaching, as long as we are attached to things, as long as we
wish and want to realize our goals.
According to the Buddha's teaching, everything will come to us as
it should, nothing we can do to change it.
One wisdom of Chan Buddhism is to sit better and wait for things
to develop. In any case, it is better than actionism, wanting to
have everything "immediately" and right away.
Suffering arises from desiring and wanting, because not
fulfilling those desires brings us suffering.
Boredom: The desire for desires
- Leo Tolstoy - Russian writer - 1828 - 1910
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