Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
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under the microscope in t his way in order to castigate himself for his ‘sins.’ Sin had
no plac e in his system, sinc e any guilt would simply be ‘unhelpful’: it would imb e d
an aspirant in the ego that he was t rying to transc end. Gotama’s use of the words
kusala and akusala are signific ant. Sex, for example, was not list ed a mo n g the five
yama bec ause it was sinful, but bec ause it would not help a person reac h Nibbāna;
sex was e mb le ma t ic of the desire that imprisoned human beings in samsara; it
expended energy that would be better employed in yoga. A bhikkhu refrained from
sex as an athlete mig h t abstain from c ert ain foods before an imp o rt a n t c ompet it ion.
Sex had it s uses, but it was not ‘helpful’ to one engaged in the ‘noble quest.’
Go t a ma was not observing his human nature in order to pounc e on his failings, but
was b e c o min g ac quainted wit h the way it worked in order to exploit it s c apac it ies.
He had b e c o me c onvinced that the solut ion to the problem of suffering lay wit hin
himself, in what he c alled ‘t his fathom-long carcass, t his body and min d .’
Deliveranc e would c o me from the refinement of his own mundane nature, and so
he mu s t invest igat e it and get to know it as int imat ely as an equestrian learns to
know the horse he is t raining.
But the practice of mindfulness also ma d e him mo re ac ut ely aware than ever
of the pervasiveness of both suffering and the desire that gave rise to it. All these
thoughts and longings that c rowded int o his c onsc iousness were of suc h short
duration. Everything was imp e rma n e n t (anicca). However intense a c raving mig h t
be, it soon petered out and was replaced by something quit e different. Nothing
last ed long, not even the bliss of medit at ion. The t ransit ory nature of life was one
of the c hief c auses of suffering, and as he rec orded his feelings, mo me n t by
mo me n t , Go t a ma also b e c a me aware that the dukkha of life was not c onfined to
the ma jo r traumas of sickness, old age and death. It happened on a daily, even
hourly basis, in all the lit t le disappointments, rejections, frust rat ions and failures
that befall us in the c ourse of a single day: ‘Pain, grief and despair are dukkha,’ he
would explain lat er, ‘being forc ed int o proximit y wit h what we hate is suffering,
being separated from what we love is suffering, not getting what we want is
suffering.’ T rue, t here was pleasure in life, but onc e Go t a ma had subjected t his to
the merc iless sc rutiny of mindfulness, he not ic ed how often our sat isfac t ion me ant
suffering for ot hers. The prosperit y of one person usually depends upon the povert y
or exc lusion of somebody else; when we get something that ma ke s us happy, we
immed iat ely st art to worry about losing it ; we pursue an objec t of desire, even
when we know in our heart of heart s that it will ma ke us unhappy in the long run.
Mindfulness also ma d e Go t a ma highly sensit ive to the prevalence of the desire
or c raving that is the c ause of t his suffering. The ego is voracious and c ont inually
wants to gobble up other things and people. We a lmo s t never see things as they
are in themselves, but our vision is colored by whether we want them or not, how
we can get t h e m, or how they can bring us profit. Our view of the world is,
therefore, distorted by our greed, and t his often leads to ill will and e n mit y , when
our desires c lash wit h the c ravings of ot hers. Henc eforth, Go t a ma would usually
c ouple ‘desire’ (tanhā) wit h ‘hat red’ (dosa). When we say ‘I want,’ we often find
ourselves filled wit h envy, jealousy and rage if other people bloc k our desires or
succeed where we have failed. Suc h states of min d are ‘unskillful’ bec ause they
ma ke us mo re selfish than ever. Desire and hat red, it s c onc omitant, are thus the
joint c ause of mu c h of the mis e ry and evil in the world. On the one hand, desire
ma ke s us ‘grab’ or ‘c ling’ to things that can never give last ing sat isfac t ion. On the