In a recent edition of the Free Buddhist Audio Podcast, Vajratara gives a wonderful introductory talk on the stories around Buddha’s enlightenment and subsequent turning of the wheel of the dharma (The Buddha’s Gift To The World). In it, she makes an interesting point that I hadn’t heard articulated in quite the same way before.
The Buddha first entered upon the spiritual path upon realizing that people are horrified when they are confronted with the fact that they too are subject to aging, sickness and death:
Even though I was endowed with such fortune, such total refinement, the thought occurred to me: “When an untaught, run-of-the-mill person, himself subject to aging, illness, death, not beyond aging, illness, death, sees another who is aged, ill, dead, he is horrified, humiliated, and disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to aging, illness, death, not beyond aging, illness, death. If I — who am subject to aging, illness, death, not beyond aging, illness, death — were to be horrified, humiliated, and disgusted on seeing another person who is aged, ill, dead, that would not be fitting for me.” As I noticed this, the young person’s intoxication with youth, health, life entirely dropped away. [source]
The Buddha again discusses these three divine messengers when describing his quest for awakening:
Before my Awakening, when I was still an unawakened Bodhisatta, being subject myself to birth, aging, illness, death, sorrow, and defilement, I sought [happiness in] what was subject to birth, aging, illness, death, sorrow, and defilement. The thought occurred to me: “Why am I, being subject myself to birth… defilement, seeking what is subject to birth… defilement? What if I… were to seek the unborn, unaging, unailing, undying, sorrowless, undefiled, unsurpassed security from bondage: Unbinding.” [source]
So aging, sickness and death were the inescapable truths that led Buddha into the spiritual path. This is the traditional take on the divine messengers as part of the Buddha’s story of quest and enlightenment.
In her talk, Vajratara puts a subtle but revealing spin on this, that only being subject to aging, sickness and death, can one be freed from them. Again, one cannot be free from suffering without first having been subject to suffering. There are two interesting implications of this statement.
First, it reinforces fact that suffering is our teacher. This can feel like a trite statement that doesn’t always make the sufferer feel better, kind of like the priest or minister telling the grieving parent of a dead child that, “God has a plan.” But, at least for me, looking at suffering as a necessary ingredient to freedom from it is a more helpful way of looking at it, especially when combined with the concept of non-duality.
And that is the second interesting implication. The middle way is to dwell in the equanimity to be found between the two sides of the coin that are suffering and happiness, to find that place of non-duality that includes both suffering and happiness without being either of them. There cannot be freedom from suffering without suffering, and there cannot be suffering without freedom from it. So rather than flip-flopping between these two extremes, one can embrace the non-duality that sees them both as one, that contains them both and thus is neither.
