Is the Buddhist Teaching pessimistic?

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Is the Buddhist Teaching pessimistic?

By Dr. Ari Ubeysekara

Introduction

Buddhism is the teaching of Lord Gautama Buddha, who lived in Northern India during the sixth and fifth centuries BC. The Buddha became a Sammā Sambuddha by attaining full enlightenment through the realisation of the four Noble Truths by His own effort, with no help from a teacher. Having attained full enlightenment, through compassion for the other beings, the Buddha decided to teach the path of liberation from suffering that He had discovered so that others too can cultivate the same path and be liberated from their suffering by attaining the state of Nibbāna. In His very first sermon called “Dhamma Chakkappavattana Sutta”, meaning “Turning the Wheel of the Truth”, the Buddha expounded the four Noble Truths that He realised during the process of enlightenment.

The four Noble Truths:

  1. The Truth of universal suffering (dukkha sacca)
  2. The Truth of the origin of suffering (samudaya sacca)
  3. The Truth of the cessation of suffering (nirodha sacca)
  4. The Truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering (magga sacca)

Describing the truth of suffering, the Buddha stated:

“Birth is suffering
 Ageing is suffering
 Sickness is suffering
 Death is suffering
 Association with the unpleasant is suffering
 Dissociation from the pleasant is suffering
 Not to receive what one desires is suffering
 In short, the five aggregates of clinging is suffering”

While suffering due to birth, ageing, sickness, death, association with the unpleasant, dissociation from the pleasant and not receiving what one desires is commonplace and understandable, the statement that “In short, the five aggregates of clinging is suffering” is unique to the Buddhist doctrine.

The five aggregates of clinging (pancha-upādānakkhanda):

  1. Form or matter (rūpa)
  2. Feeling or sensation (vedanā)
  3. Perception (saññā)
  4. Mental formation (sankhāra)
  5. Consciousness (viññāna)

The fourth Noble Truth is the path leading to the end of suffering which is the Noble Eight-fold Path (ariya atthangika magga). The Noble Eight-fold Path consisting of eight interrelated factors provides practical steps to be followed to gain enlightenment (Nibbāna).

The Noble Eight-fold Path:

  1. Right view (sammā-ditthi)
  2. Right intention (sammā-sankappa)
  3. Right speech (sammā-vācā)
  4. Right action (sammā-kammanta)
  5. Right livelihood (sammā-ājīva)
  6. Right effort (sammā-vāyāma)
  7. Right mindfulness (sammā-sati)
  8. Right concentration (sammā-samādhi) (1)

Having discovered the real cause of suffering and the path to eradicate all suffering, the Buddha’s mission during the ministry of 45 years was to teach the path of liberation to as many people as possible so that they could also cultivate the same path and liberate themselves from suffering. An often quoted statement of the Buddha was:

 “I teach only two things
   Suffering and end of suffering.”

The term “dukkha” in the Pali language, which is believed to have been the spoken language in that part of India where the Lord Gautama Buddha lived and taught in the 6th and 5th century BC, is generally translated as “suffering” in the English language. The Pali word “dukkha” is made up of the prefix “du” meaning bad or difficult and the root “kha” meaning empty. Although the word “suffering” is used in most of the Buddhist literature in the English language due to the lack of a better word, it is generally agreed that suffering does not reveal the true nature of the word “dukkha”. Some Buddhist scholars have even suggested that the Pali word “dukkha” should continue to be used instead of suffering. The Pali word “dukkha” is said to mean so many other things apart from suffering such as unsatisfactoriness, irritation, impatience, imperfection, disappointment, dissatisfaction, tension, stress, anxiety, pain, desperation, sorrow, sadness, emptiness, misery, agony and anguish etc.

However, whenever one hears the term “dukkha” it is suffering that comes to one’s mind referring to physical and mental pain. In fact, the Buddha has described three main types of suffering.  In the Dukkhata sutta of the Samyutta Nikāya (the collection of Buddha’s connected discourses), Buddha has described these three types of suffering:

  1. Dukkha dukkha – Actual physical, mental or emotional pain that everybody experiences
  2. Viparināma dukkha – Suffering due to the transient nature of physical and mental pleasures experienced
  3. Sankhāra dukkha – Suffering due to the transient nature of all conditioned phenomena

Dukkha dukkha is the obvious physical and mental pain that is universally accepted as suffering. They are common to all human beings and are experienced from birth to death by all with no exception. Viparināma dukkha is the suffering caused by the transitory and the constantly changing nature of physical and mental phenomena. Even the happiness, pleasures, comforts and security that one enjoys in life are temporary and would soon come to an end causing inevitable suffering. Sankhāra dukkha can be described as the suffering caused by the fact of impermanence (anicca) and in-substantiality (anatta) of all conditioned phenomena and is unique to Buddhist teaching. This aspect of suffering is perhaps the subtlest form of suffering experienced by human beings and is the most difficult of the three aspects of suffering that one could understand.

It is because the Buddha has first mentioned the obvious examples of physically and mentally painful suffering in describing different aspects of suffering as follows, that many tend to believe that the Buddha’s definition of suffering refers only to those aspects of suffering.

“Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, grief, lamentation, bodily pain, mental pain and despair are suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, dissociation from the pleasant is suffering, not to receive what one desires is suffering.” (1)

The most significant aspect of suffering that the Buddha had mentioned was: “In short, the five aggregates of clinging is suffering.” Here, the Buddha has referred to the very subtle form of sankhāra dukkha that was the third type of suffering mentioned in the Dukkhata sutta described above. The Buddha has said that what we call a person or an individual is a psycho physical complex or mind and matter (nama rupa) consisting of the five aggregates of clinging:

  1. Form or matter (rūpa)
  2. Feeling or sensation (vedanā)
  3. Perception (saññā)
  4. Mental formation (sankhāra)
  5. Consciousness (viññāna)

The five aggregates of clinging function together as a group to produce all our personal experiences. The first aggregate of form represents the material aspect while the other four aggregates represent a variety of mental actions. They arise due to physical and mental antecedent conditions only to cease instantly and are in a constant state of flux with no stable or permanent entity. One has no ownership or control over them and when one identifies with them as “I” or “me”, it can only lead to suffering (dukkha) due to their very transient nature.

The Buddha has said that everything in this universe apart from the state of Nibbāna is conditioned by preceding causes and conditions which are also transient and impermanent. According to Buddha’s teaching, every conditioned mental and physical phenomenon in the university is subject to three universal characteristics. They are:

  1. Impermanent (anicca)
  2. Suffering or unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) and
  3. Not-self (anatta)

But due to ignorance of the true reality of those phenomena, unenlightened beings consider the five aggregates of clinging as permanent, happiness and self, which can lead to immense suffering life after life.

The Buddha has never denied that there is pleasure and happiness associated with one’s life. When one receives external sense objects that are delightful, pleasant and attractive, through one of the internal sense bases, there is happiness and pleasure. The Buddha never said that one should not enjoy them, but because those happy feelings are conditioned, transient and impermanent, the Buddha showed the dangers of developing desire, lust, craving and attachment to them as they will inevitably lead to suffering due to their transient nature. The Buddha has also described different types of happiness enjoyed by the householders and the  renunciants as well as the non-sensual pleasures enjoyed by the meditators through the development of deep mental absorptions through meditation. Through concentration meditation (samatha bhāvanā), it is possible to gain high degrees of spiritual and non-sensual joy and happiness and a state of equanimity (upekkhā) free from both pleasant and unpleasant feelings by developing tranquillity and deep mental absorptions (jhana). But, that happiness and equanimity are temporary as they can exist only while those states are maintained and will eventually cease leading to unhappiness.

In the Anana sutta of the Anguttara Nikāya (collection of the Buddha’s numerical discourses), the Buddha has described four types of happiness enjoyed by the lay people.

  1. The happiness of ownership (atthi sukha)
  2. The happiness of enjoying one’s wealth (bhoga sukha)
  3. The happiness of debtlessness (anana sukha)
  4. The happiness of blamelessness (anavajja sukha) (2)

Wealth and other assets earned through effort, hard work and honesty can bring happiness and one can be happy and joyful while enjoying the wealth so earned in addition to being able to perform meritorious activities using one’s wealth. The knowledge that one has no debts, big or small, to anyone else will bring happiness. Finally, blameless physical, verbal or mental actions performed by oneself is a source of happiness to that person.

Because of the Buddha’s emphasis on suffering in order to get the disciples to face the true reality of the existence of suffering in all aspects of life, and also the very narrow definition of the Pali word “dukkha” as suffering, there have been some statements to the effect that Buddhism is a pessimistic teaching. If the Buddha has merely emphasised the existence of suffering, without proposing a path to eradicate suffering and thus allowing the people to anguish in suffering, one could say that the statement that Buddhism is a pessimistic teaching is fair and legitimate. But that is not what the Buddha did. During the process of enlightenment, having first realised that there is universal suffering, the Buddha then searched for the cause of suffering and realised that it is craving (tanhā) in the form of craving for sense pleasures (kāma-tanhā), craving for becoming or existence (bhava-tanhā) and craving for non-becoming or non-existence (vibhava-tanhā). Then the Buddha discovered through personal experience that with the total eradication of all forms of craving, it is possible to eradicate suffering and to attain the state of Nibbana which is free from all forms of suffering. The Buddha presented the Noble Eight-fold Path as the fourth Noble Truth which needs to be cultivated in order to completely liberate oneself from suffering.

Noble Eight-fold Path:

  1. Right view (sammā-ditthi)
  2. Right intention (sammā-sankappa)
  3. Right speech (sammā-vaca)
  4. Right action (sammā-kammanta)
  5. Right livelihood (sammā-ājīva)
  6. Right effort (sammā-vāyma)
  7. Right mindfulness (sammā-sati)
  8. Right concentration (sammā-samādhi)

From a practical standpoint the above eight factors are divided into three groups:

  1. Morality (sīla), consisting of right speech, right action and right livelihood.
  2. Concentration (samādhi), consisting of right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
  3. Wisdom (paññā), consisting of right view and right intention.

The term “pessimism” is derived from the Latin word “pessimus” meaning the “worst”. Pessimism can be described as a mental attitude in which one expects an undesirable outcome from a given situation. A pessimist has the tendency to see the negative and the worst aspects of something and to believe that the worse is going to happen. The term “optimism” is derived from the Latin word “optimum” meaning “best”. It is the mental attitude in which one is hopeful and confident of success of a given situation. Even if an optimist experiences a negative situation, it will be considered a learning situation leading to a successful outcome at the end. Here, I would also like to introduce the term “realism” which is derived from the Latin word “realis” meaning “real”. The term realism means a mental attitude in which one recognizes and accepts the true nature of a situation and make an effort to deal in a practical way.

If a well-qualified medical physician who examines and investigates the symptoms of a particular patient, says to the patient that he or she has a serious medical illness but nothing can be done to cure it or to alleviate the patient’s suffering without looking into the possible treatments available, that is indeed creating a sense of pessimism in the patient. If the physician says to the patient that the patient is suffering from a serious illness but that it can be cured and the suffering can be alleviated by using a particular treatment that is available, that creates a sense of optimism in the patient. If the physician prescribes that particular treatment for the patient and the patient recovers from the illness and the suffering through that treatment, that creates a sense of optimism as well as realism. Because it has been proved that the exact pathology of the illness has been correctly identified and the appropriate treatment method has been used, so that if another patient suffers from the same illness with the same pathology, the same treatment can be used to cure that patient as well.

This is exactly what Lord Gautama Buddha did. Having cultivated the necessary positive qualities over an incalculable period of time, and through the cultivation of the mind to an advanced state of knowledge, the Buddha discovered the universal nature of suffering that every sentient being is subject to. Through further investigation, the Buddha discovered that the cause of suffering is craving (tanhā) and that by eradicating craving, one is able to completely eradicate suffering to attain the supra mundane state of Nibbāna which is free from all suffering with no further rebirth in the cycle of birth and death (samsāra). Through personal experience, the Buddha also discovered the path of liberation from suffering which is the Noble Eight-fold Path and taught it to the world so that others could also cultivate the same path and liberate themselves from suffering.

During the life time of  Lord Gautama Buddha and during the past twenty six centuries since the Buddha’s passing away, enormous numbers of the Buddha’s disciples have cultivated the Noble Eight-fold Path, which is the Buddhist spiritual path of liberation and have liberated themselves from suffering. Apart from the final liberation from all suffering, Buddhist teaching also helps one to see the reality of life as it is with the identification of one’s positive and negative qualities. This can help one to adopt a way of life by cultivating positive qualities and giving up negative qualities, so that one is able to improve the quality of life in the present life as well as in future lives. There are many aspects of the Buddha’s teaching that can be practised for the betterment of one’s personal life, family life, working life as well as the society in general. The Buddha has also encouraged the followers to cultivate positive qualities such as moral behaviour (sila), charity (dana), patience (khanti), loving kindness (metta) and compassion (karuna) that will benefit not only fellow human beings but all the living beings in the world.

During the past few decades, mindfulness meditation, which is a significant aspect of the Buddhist teaching, has been adapted into several treatment programs to alleviate a range of psychological and physical ailments particularly in the Western countries. Mindfulness is the practice of purposely focusing one’s attention on the present experience from moment to moment without judging or reacting. Mindfulness based treatment techniques are gaining popularity following the publication of numerous research papers indicating their benefit for a range of psychological and medical conditions. It has been successfully used in several conditions such as stress, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, addictive disorders, eating disorders, and in cancer patients and cancer survivors. Two of the well established treatment programs that are currently used in many clinical settings are the Mindfulness based stress reduction and the Mindfulness based cognitive therapy for depression. This shows that even after twenty six centuries, Buddhist teaching is providing opportunities to open up new avenues to alleviate human suffering.

During the life time of  Lord Gautama Buddha and during the past twenty six centuries since the Buddha’s passing away, enormous numbers of the Buddha’s disciples have cultivated the Noble Eight-fold Path, which is the Buddhist spiritual path of liberation and have liberated themselves from suffering. The Buddha’s teaching is still freely available and over six hundred million disciples of the Buddha, spread all over the world, are practising the Buddhist path of liberation as they have the confidence that it is the correct path to liberate oneself from suffering and from the cycle of birth and death. So, it is quite reasonable to come to the conclusion that the Buddhist teaching is not a pessimistic teaching, but an optimistic and realistic teaching that has given hope and optimism to millions of it’s followers.

References

  1. Bhikkhu Bodhi 1999, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, A Translation of the Samyutta Nikāya, Wisdom Publications.
  2. Bhikkhu Bodhi 2012, Anana sutta, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Anguttara Nikāya, Wisdom Publications.

End.