Live, suffer, die, chill

Today is Visakha Bucha day - the day that marks the birth, the enlightenment and the death of Siddharta Gautama, aka the Lord Buddha.

It is said that on his 36th birthday, while meditating at the base of a Bodhi tree, the Buddha came to understand the four noble truths of existence, which are:

1. Life is suffering.
2. This suffering is caused by desire, or attachment.
3. That without attachment, suffering ceases to exist.
4. There is a path to extinguish this attachment, and end the suffering: the Noble Eightfold Path.

And the steps along the Eightfold Path are: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.

Whenever I read and reflect upon about these discoveries that brought the Buddha into a state of enlightenment, I think "Yes, how simple! Exactly!" every time. These truths are, you know, just SO TRUE!

Truth #1 I've got down pat. Living here in Asia, you don't have to go far to see that, indeed, life is suffering. Life is shit, handed to you in the form of a cyclone or an earthquake, oftentimes. Tens of thousands of Asians, even hundreds of thousands, wiped off the face of the earth in the space of two weeks, and millions more left in sick, miserable condition. Suffering, yes, I've got it, and thankfully the most stark forms of suffering (hunger, poverty, disease, for example) I have not experienced head-on, knock wood.

At the same time, coming from one of the richest countries in the world makes me see the other side of suffering, the one in which you seem to have everything but you're stuck in a spiritual slum. Which, of course, is because of Truth #2: desire.

Desire is like a giant Hoover that just sucks you in and pulls you along in a neverending hose, where everything keeps slipping just beyond your grasp, and clogged in the hose along with you on this journey is a whole pile of lint that keeps blocking your vision. Because that's what all the iPods, the nice cars, the perfect well-adjusted marriage/child, the weekends in Hawaii, the flatscreen HD tv, that dream job are - try to grab onto any of these too tightly and watch their empty promises crumble like lint before your eyes.

I've worked with some mighty rich people in my day, and, let me tell you, some of them were walking examples of unquenchable desire and its not-so-desirable effects. Indeed, I am a walking example of unquenchable desire and its not-so-desirable effects. My recent purchase of a shirt that I knew didn't look quite right but I really wanted it because it was pretty and I had hoped it would reform itself to fit my body correctly sometime between shelling out the cash for it and taking it home, and now it hangs, unworn, so prettily in my closet, is but one example.

Truth #3, well, in its simplest form it's really just what it is: 1+2=3. Or, actually, it's more like 1-2=3 or Life-Desire=End of Suffering. I get that, I really do. There are moments here and there where the breaking of my attachment to something has flung open one of the many prison doors I've constructed within my brain. But then, of course, I go and find something else to glom onto, and it's back to Truth #1.

Which brings us to Truth #4, the mother of all truths: the path. On the surface it seems you're handed a golden ticket to perfect happiness. OK! So I just have to follow these eight little steps and I'm on my way! Problem is, and no one tells you this (ok, many tell you this but I choose not to listen), this path, these steps, are, to put it mildly, FRICKEN HARD.

When I look at the Eightfold Path, this noble path, and think about how I can apply it in life, I sometimes get overwhelmed at the task ahead of me, and pack it in and go surf the web in mindless bliss for an hour. And then I get annoyed at the fact that this "breaking free of attachments" thing is decidedly not the same as "giving up", which seems so much easier sometimes.

Buddhism is irritating in that it's not a slacker religion. You have to sit up, take notice, live consciously and work your ass off to find the way to snuff out the suffering. It's not about retreating into a cave and cutting yourself off. It forces you to try to see the truth in the world around you, and more vexingly, deep within yourself.

And then it goes and tells you that, indeed, there is no self.

Darn, just when I was starting to get to know my good friend Self, I've gotta kick her out the door!

The Buddha is often depicted having a serene smile. Sometimes, though, if you look at it from a certain angle it's more like a knowing smirk. "I've found the way for you," he seems to say, "and it's hard.

"Deal with it."