doctrine of threefold suffering: The first kind of suffering, the suffering of
suffering, is, for example, the grief one feels upon the death of a loved one. The
second kind of suffering, the suffering of change, is illustrated by change in one’s
financial status or by the change from enjoyment of good food to the sickness
caused by that same food. The third kind of suffering, the suffering of conditioned
existence or the suffering of embodiment, is the slow change of deterioration that
accompanies all life, like the slow but sure change from youth to old age.
In general, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity—all religions—have the
same potential to bring peace of mind and a happy state. All agree that, to achieve
peace of mind, we need to practice some sort of shamata and vipasyana
meditation, but having such high aspirations is as far from the actual realization as
the earth is from the sky. Some religious practitioners are able to suppress the
suffering of body and mind temporarily through the virtue of meditative
absorption. Some practitioners of other religions are successful in securing rebirth
in the higher realms of the gods or human beings, which is a little better. But what
is the use of that? It is no better than treating the symptoms of the disease instead
of its root cause. The same is true for suffering: we need to eliminate its root cause.
1.2 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “INSIDER” AND “OUTSIDER” MEDITATION
Most religions offer a simple-minded contemplation that is relevant to a worldly
path defined by the “outsider” view. This type of meditation, which is found in
various forms in different religions, can temporarily relieve superficial suffering.
It may induce ordinary clairvoyance, the four levels of concentrated absorption,
and even rebirth as a formless god. But what kind of liberation is that? What we
need is the eradication of the ego-clinging that is the root cause of suffering. The
way to do this has been provided in the teaching of the lord of beings, the
Bhagawan, the Buddha Shakyamuni, who taught “insider” contemplation. On that
path we understand that all experience is empty and unreal and that
contemplation can accomplish the release wherein there is no longer any ego-
clinging. Here the cause of suffering is eliminated at its very root.
The crucial difference between “outsider” and “insider” meditation is that the
former seeks to cut off the branches of suffering, while the latter cuts through the
root. Developing an understanding of ego-loss, we attain the various levels and
stages, and training in the qualities of contemplation, we proceed to the
attainment of buddha. To engage in such practice, we need to understand the
nature of all phenomena, and since mind is the leader—the dominating factor—in
that process, it is essential to know its secret. As the bodhisattva poet Shantideva
says in Entering the Way of the Bodhisattva,
Without knowing the secret of mind,
Any pursuit of happiness,
Any forsaking of suffering—
All that is quite futile.