Pema: Holding the Suffering of the World
Like many of you, I get dharma quotes from Pema Chodron and other published teachers in my mailbox everyday. This quote from Pema’s book, “The Wisdom of No Escape”, seems particularly relevant because she asks us to acknowledge the suffering of the world. It asks us not to numb it with addiction, or avoid it with distractions and consumption, but to embrace the pain and sadness along with the sun of enlightenment. Some recent interpretations of ‘enlightened society’ have turned toward the pollyannish, arguing that to acknowledge suffering and the Four Noble Truths is to ‘get stuck’ in suffering, to deny the truth of basic goodness. The argument is that so long as we are creating ‘enlightened society’, we don’t have to concern ourselves about ‘unenlightened society.’ This quote from Pema takes the tradition back to its roots in Chogyam Trungpa’s teaching, who’s original teaching was always more nuanced and complex than its later reduction to platitudes.
| July 9, 2014 JOINING HEAVEN AND EARTH. Recently, in a friend’s kitchen I saw on the wall a quotation from one of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s talks, which said: “Hold the sadness and pain of samsara in your heart and at the same time the power and vision of the Great Eastern Sun. Then the warrior can make a proper cup of tea.”I was struck by it because when I read it I realized that I myself have some kind of preference for stillness. The notion of holding the sadness and pain of samsara in my heart rang true, but I realized I didn’t do that; at least, I had a definite preference for the power and vision of the Great Eastern Sun. My reference point was always to be awake and to live fully, to remember the Great Eastern Sun—the quality of being continually awake. But what about holding the sadness and pain of samsara in my heart at the same time?The quotation really made an impression on me. It was completely true: if you can live with the sadness of human life (what Rinpoche often called the tender heart or genuine heart of sadness), if you can be willing to feel fully and acknowledge continually your own sadness and the sadness of life, but at the same time not be drowned in it, because you also remember the vision and power of the Great Eastern Sun, you experience balance and completeness, joining heaven and earth, joining vision and practicality. |
Maia Durr of Turning Wheel Media also writes on the wisdom of the Four Noble Truths as it applies to collective suffering. Once we acknowledge the truth of suffering, holding the sadness and pain in our hearts in contemplation and meditation, then we can discover the Third and Fourth Noble Truths, the end of suffering and the path of Liberation.
http://www.buddhistpeacefellowship.org/the-third-noble-truth-a-glimpse-of-hope/
The whole series of Maia Duerr’s teaching on the Four Noble Truths as they apply to collective suffering begins here.
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