Root Cause of Suffering is Attachment

I was surprised to see the tag line for a dance routine, “+ -“, for a third year choreography production at York University in Toronto as, “The Root Cause of Suffering is Attachment”.   

The dance depicted attachment, suffering, detachment and happiness in a beautiful rendition by the two performers.

This statement was Buddha’s, pièce de ré·sis·tance after his enlightenment over 2600 years ago, and not too many people in our civilization since, have really taken heed of it.

Much of the world revolves around attachment as consumerism is about identity that one derives from being attached to whatever thing that is supposed to make one feel good.  Then again, we are also attached to our name, culture, religion, nationality – some even fight to kill when another threatens or insults them.

Of course, the most significant attachment for most is our loved ones – parents first, siblings, spouse, our own children, relatives and friends.  Buddha transcended all that, even his spouse and child, as he went searching for a higher truth.  He was already in another metaphysical plane of existence to be able to do that.

His journey of inquiry took him through many practices as he settled on meditation to quiet the mind to gain deep insights into the way of nature, life and suffering.

The Four Noble Truths

This arduous practice and inquiry led him to enlightenment, when he revealed the root cause of suffering to be attachment via the four noble truths.   

 

The attachments happen through the 'five aggregates': form or material image which is the body (rupa); sensations or feelings received from the body (vedana); when feelings intersect understanding through emotion we have perceptions (samjna); mental activity or formations lead to our worldview (sankhara); and finally our consciousness (vijnana).

 

The fourth truth gave us a path to transcend suffering and find happiness through the Noble Eightfold Pathway, which is essentially letting go of the five aggregates.    

If suffering is the norm, he said, we have to commit to and persevere on a certain path to seek happiness, the deeper happiness that comes from equanimity - state of psychological stability and composure undisturbed by experience or exposure to emotions or pain and suffering that may cause people to lose the balance of mind. 

The power of balance is possible if we are not subjected to an emotional roller coaster - when there is loss or gain; praise or blame; fame or insignificance. Power of balance may result in emotional composure – the equanimity - the Buddha spoke of.

The Buddha also said, don’t take his word for it as he related in the Kalama Sutra;

“Rely not on the teacher, but on the teaching.  Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words. Rely not on the theory, but on experience.  Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.  Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.  Do not believe anything because it is spoken by many.  Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

...But by observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it” - Kalama Sutra – the Buddha 

Today’s Misery

The wars of today stem from people defending a nation, religion, a culture, a tradition, a lifestyle that we identify with and attached to.  We define and are attached to our identity through the 'five aggregates' and sometimes we defend it even with vile behaviour, when we feel our honour is insulted and violated.   We may fight to the end, even do the kamikaze or blow ourselves up and others at the extreme for a cause that we are so attached to.

All this happens when we believe in the illusion that we are our own thoughts to identify with and be driven by them. Our thoughts are influenced by our ego, emotions and perceptions which are artificial constructs conditioned by our nurture and acculturation.  Our experiences lead to judgments, biases and prejudices to colour our thoughts that limit us.  

When we quiet our mind through meditation to observe, analyse and inquire, we begin to realize that we can transcend these artificial constructs to alleviate our suffering and move towards the unconditioned - the nature of things as they are.  

How Mindfulness can put our Attachments in Perspective

Mindfulness is an elegant way of investigating the attachment-suffering nexus.  Through the practice of meditation we observe the unconditioned - that everything on this earth is transitory and impermanent.   

This insight gives us a clue as to how clinging and attachment to anything can bring us suffering - as simply - we cannot attach to anything permanently, not even our name, a religion, a nationality, a way of life, even our children, let alone our material possessions.  These deep insights show us that happiness arises from letting go.

My Mindfulness Journey

As I meditate daily - insights reveal themselves in a way that I am beginning to validate what Buddha taught, yet he asked us not to take what he said in blind faith, but to inquire for one's self.    

That alone requires me to take responsibility for myself, as my suffering cannot be blamed on another, but my own Karma.   I may transcend it through the Noble Eightfold Pathway.

Meditation - pointed attention and concentration helps me to check those thoughts that may be full of judgement, prejudice and righteous indignation even.  With mindful awareness, knowing and bare attention I can catch them, before they become a loaded thought that could misdirect me to fix others rather than myself first.    

The reflective, mindful space helps me gain right understanding to redirect my thoughts with positive intention for right thought,  effort and action, so I can act and behave in a way with kindness, compassion and empathy first towards the imperfect 'me' and then others – to every being in nature, from a rock to a tree to animals and to the other humans. 

Our Oneness with Nature

As thinking, reasoning, intelligent people, the modern human has forgotten our oneness with nature through our education and conditioning. We have become arrogant to rule over and subjugate nature through science and technology.  

 

If we are one with nature, how can we subjugate or control nature - we are nature.   Whatever we do – with technology, with machine, with artificial intelligence - to interfere with nature, we are then interfering with our very nature of being.    

Right action is when we celebrate and honour our own life by honouring the very nature of it, as when we are born, live and die, we are changing a state of being, just like ice melts to water and turns to vapour when heated - it is all one and the same in different states.    

When we realize this unconditioned state, we do not need to cling to life through the 'five aggregates' of the body, feelings, perceptions, worldviews and consciousness as it takes it’s rite of passage - as our physical self comes from nature and goes back to nature.  

 

In quietening the mind to listen to nature’s  wisdom reveals that our consciousness and spirit may live on.  When we cling to our physical nature we suffer, when we learn to let go, we can be happy.  

 

This may take a lifetime of a mindfulness practice and inquiry realize. 

Then we may notice that the Root Cause of Suffering is Attachment.