happiness depended upon objective material things, rich people would not
undergo suffering as they do, but rather they would enjoy the pleasure of the gods.
But happiness doesn’t stay more than a moment; second by second it changes
inexorably from happiness into suffering.
1.9 THE METHOD OF ELIMINATING BELIEF IN CONCRETE REALITY, THE CAUSE OF SUFFERING
The root of all suffering is the grasping at and clinging to a substantial essence in
objects. First, we need to learn to apprehend the unreality of material things.
Happiness and suffering do not exist in the nature of things. What we consider to
be a source of happiness—for example, our children, partner, wealth, and so on—
sometimes becomes a source of suffering, such as the death of our beloved son, the
infidelity of our beautiful wife, the theft of our cherished wealth, or even the loss
of our own life. Sometimes, an event that we considered a source of suffering
becomes a cause of pleasure. What about the enemy who by merely uttering a few
chance words turns into a close friend ready to put his life at risk for us? Or take
Mahatma Gandhi’s experience of painful humiliation on a train, from which arose
the heroic thought of struggling for Indian independence. Afterward the Mahatma
pioneered the path of nonviolence, for which he would become world famous. In
that case, the negative situation turned into a highly positive and favorable event.
Again, a long time ago in India there was a great poet called “Tulsi Das.” One day
his wife left his house to visit her parents. Tulsi Das could not sleep even a night
without his wife beside him, so he went to her, a journey that involved crossing
the great river between his village and his in-laws’ house. When he reached the
place where his wife was staying, she accosted him, saying, “You shameless sex-
starved beggar! You even risk your life to come to me.” He was so saddened by his
wife’s attitude that he left her and went to Mt. Bikche, where he meditated for
many years. One day he had a vision of a deity and obtained from him the power
of literary composition. He composed the versified Ramayana, beloved by all India,
and his fame spread far and wide. Thus humiliation by his wife created the
condition for the composition of a literary masterpiece.
During the Maoist insurgency in Nepal, the cadres burnt down the people’s huts
in some small villages. After peace was made, the Nepali government gave large
sums of money as compensation to the owners of those huts, and with that money,
they built big houses in the city. The tragedy of their homes’ being destroyed
became a source of happiness for them.
In this way, one particular event can give rise to either happiness or suffering.
Further, when we feel happy, wherever we look, we take delight in what we see
and derive feelings of happiness and beauty from everything. When we suffer,
everything we see or hear is unpleasant. When our blood is boiling, we will reject,
break, or destroy anything we see in front of us. We know that sometimes a person
will burn down his or her own house in anger and even incinerate his or her own
body. When we are angry, everything we perceive is a source of anger and
displeasure; wherever our gaze falls, we see the root cause of our suffering.
All appearances may well be our own projections, but their particularity is not