The last post was about the First Noble Truth in Buddhism: life is suffering. ‘Suffering’ is the commonly used English translation of the Sanskrit word dukkha. I agree with Triangulations blogger that dukkha is more accurately translated as ‘unsatisfactoriness’ or ‘dissatisfaction’.
In my experience, dissatisfaction occurs when I attach to the thought, ‘this shouldn’t be happening’ in reaction to whatever is happening.
Can suffering end completely? Here is what I have learned about that:
While I don’t claim to know anything, I offer a synthesis of what I have learned from personal conversations with my teacher, and from studying other sources I trust.
When an individual becomes fully awakened spiritually, that individual stops generating dissatisfaction for him/herself. Awakening means there is no attachment to ‘I, me and my story’, and dissatisfaction stops. Completely.
That does not mean that suffering stops for other people. There are terrible, horrible abuses and injustices happening in the world all the time. The awake person is not blind to the suffering of others or immune to physical pain. The awake person is simply not contributing to the incessant noise of dissatisfaction, and therefore is able to help other people who are still dissatisfied.
True awakening, true and complete freedom from dissatisfaction, is extremely rare. The end of dissatisfaction is possible, but if it ends for you, chances are, it will continue for others, so in that sense, it is not over.
The awake person lives for the purpose of helping people who want to wake up. In order to relate to others, depending on the context, the awake person may seem to be very ‘normal’ or very ‘eccentric/otherworldly’.
Finding a True Teacher can be the end of seeking and the beginning of the end of dissatisfaction if you allow yourself to be guided.
Svaha 
I agree that much dissatisfaction can be ended by attitude and mental habits. But if an “awakened” person’s son died or family got killed in a car crash or they got 50% of their body burned in an explosion or they had bone cancer or they were starving and watching their family die in front of their eyes, I imagine there would still be lots of dissatisfaction. Hell, there should be.
Hi Sabio, good point. The awake person does feel the full spectrum of emotions.
There would absolutely be sadness, grief or physical pain in response to the examples you gave, which would be only natural and human. However, because the awake person does not attach to ‘this shouldn’t be happening’, there is no dissatisfaction.
The awake person has thoughts, feelings and sensations in response to stimuli just like everyone else. The difference is, the thoughts and feelings about the traumatic event do not become a part of the structure of ‘me’ for the awake person. When there is no attachment to the sense of self, deep emotion and tremendous compassion are absolutely very active, without the personal story about ‘poor me’.
When thoughts and feelings are fully allowed, without judgment, they are not a problem.
This is my understanding based on observation, reading and asking questions. I love talking about these things and I’m so glad you are here bringing up very good points!
I have not had experiences talking to highly remarkable people.
Mind you, I have talked to people to claimed to be such, but I was not impressed. But I know my experience is highly limited and have seen videos of folks I’d imagine are remarkable.
I would imagine it is a matter of degree and am suspicious of absolutes. But I do have faith that huge degrees of change are possible — enough so that irrespective of one’s belief in actual Buddhas, actual Boddhisatvas, actually enlightened individuals, there are those with who have accomplished enough to have well modeled a better hope for us humans.
Thanks for your reply.
Hi Sabio, I’m not talking about highly remarkable people. I’m talking about spiritually awake people. People who are spiritually awake can appear to be extremely ordinary, and utterly un-remarkable.
If you have not yet met or conversed with a spiritually awake person, I sincerely hope that you get a chance to… if that is what you want.
Aly:
BTW: You might want to see if you have checked the “allow to follow by e-mail” box in your control panel. I don’t get notification of follow-ups to comments. I just occassionally stop in and happen to see stuff. So if it is turned off, I will miss lots.
Yeah, I don’t get that “spiritually” awake category yet. I would love to meet someone and see if I can tell such a huge categorical difference. For certainly it is a grand claim, so I would imagine there must be ways to know.
‘Spiritually awake’ is a synonym for ‘enlightened’. I like it because there are less assumptions and religious ideas about what it means.
http://jameswoodteachings.com/2009/06/the-well
Thanks for the heads up about email notifications! I’ll check that out.
:)
You seem to already have all the answers Aly, so good luck with that and will drop around from time to time. M
This is beautiful!
Thank goodness we found each other.
I look forward to more…
(Now, my question is “Where have you been all my life?” Did we know each other in a previous incarnation? Other bodies? Other . . . beings?)
I bow to you and thank karma for reproducing you in this lifetime for all of us to share in your offerings.
michael j
Conshohocken, PA
Bodhisatva-wanabe
:) Thank you Michael, I’m very happy you are here!
I want to be clear that I am a student of spiritual awakening, not a teacher.
My primary teacher is James Wood, I have direct contact with him and he gives me guidance for my particular situation.
My secondary teachers are the ones linked on the homepage under ‘Teachers of Spiritual Awakening’. All of them are worth checking out, if you are interested.
I am at a point in the journey where it feels really good to share what I have learned so far! Thank you again for your kindness and connection here.
Nitram, I definitely do not have all the answers, and I have said that over and over in this blog. I offer my understanding of my Teachers’ answers to the questions that many of us have.
I like what D.T. suzuki says about it:
I cried bitter tears when my wife died, but the pain had no roots
Not “implicated” is how I intuit it, it all remains as is : pain, pleasure, loss, desire but Transcendental Consciousness is not bound by any of it. So unless you go the Yogi (and other) route of trance samadhi where a “state” is put between you and the living event, then all suffering still arises and is “felt” fully, but even in that full vulnerability or love, there is no threat or implication of bondage and “humour” remains -just to clarify this is not my experience constantly, but it can be clearly known by all beings from time to time and even inherently or intuitively and thats where I speak from, with all of “us”, so to speak
Yes. Personally, I’m not at all interested in ‘higher state’ interfaces or trance bubbles. From what I understand, the Transcendental Consciousness, as lived by very rare embodied examples, is never bound by arising phenomena because the tendency to contract or define the ‘me’ according to what happens is over.
“The awake person lives for the purpose of helping people who want to wake up.”
My response: Maybe sometimes…
If you go to classical Buddhism, Theravadin roots, you may find that the class of Buddhas do indeed reach full awakening and leave the cycle of birth and death, Samsara, permanently. Nirvana is the blowing out of the candle, that’s that.
When Buddha saw the morning star and realized perfect Enlightenment, he announced “I, and the 10,000 things, are now perfectly awakened”. Meaning he, and all beings, became perfectly enlightened together at the exact same time.
Once the prince was a Buddha, he, as the story goes, had a very tough time deciding to spin the wheel, that is the Dhamma, for the benefit of all beings.
He was pleaded to by other Deities to spin the wheel of Dhamma, for, indeed, he did not want to. He thought it too difficult for the ordinary, ignorant people to follow.
—
The class of Bodhisattva is one that is dedicated to be the very last being alive before all are perfectly enlightened. A Bodhisattva is different from a Buddha. A Bodhisattva is dedicated to saving all beings before [it]self. A Buddha is one who has reached ever lasting and perfect enlightenment in this very life.
Buddhas are Arhats. Bodhisattvas are Arhats-to-be.
Our human concept of time aside, these two strains are both headed toward perfect Enlightenment, and are, indeed, already enlightened.
The reason I bring this up is, I imagine there are perfectly awakened beings in this world, today, who do not make earthly strides toward helping other people, at least in our eyes of ordinary methods.
Their very being, as perfectly awakened, is like a beacon of light in the world and may be enough in and of itself.
What incredible power is radiating from these universal beings without their so much as lifting a physical finger.
Some teach. But I imagine some do not.
To overstate my point, their lack of teaching is inconsequential. Their being is enough.
Just some thoughts that I have. Rattle rattle.
Hi Harley, thank you for this very thoughtful comment. Yes, as I understand it, an awakened being, just being in the world, is an incredibly powerful transformative force. In my view, the radiance you speak of is the true teaching, which happens even if the awakened one is not speaking, writing or (literally) conversing with students.
When I talk to my teacher, James, I am aware (to greater or lesser degrees depending on my receptivity and mood) of something else happening under the words he is saying. I feel the same thing when I listen to or read the writings of other Teachers, like Adi Da, Vernon Howard, Adyashanti, Byron Katie, etc.
Thanks again for your thoughts. rattling back!
Great post. I absolutely 100% agree and share your thoughts on this.
I like how you use “dissatisfaction” in place of “suffering”. To me it is much truer statement, as I would not say that I suffer, but I most definitely am aware of my still occasional dissatisfaction. However I am also so thankful for being aware of it now, unlike in the past, when I had no idea, and was so attached to my story and events in my life that I just kept building upon that dissatisfaction.
Thank you and a wonderful blog!
Hi Elena, yes! cultivating awareness of dissatisfaction seems kind of strange, but it’s definitely better than what I was doing before too :) Thank you again for being here and sharing how you live the teaching.