Human Life and Its Problems

by Kalu Rinpoche

In the world of humans, life can be relatively happy, though all humans always undergo the three kinds of suffering and are subject to many problems.

THE THREE KINDS OF SUFFERING

The first kind of suffering is quite subtle. ·It is the suffering inherent to individuality and is due to the imperfections and limitations inherent in the very fact of existing, the sole fact of being composed of the five heaps that make up an individual.

We have already discussed these heaps, or aggregates: form, feeling, perception, compositional factors, and consciousness. The being made up of these five heaps is conditioned and imperfect. That conditioning and those imperfections create the first kind of suffering inherent to the aggregates of individuality. They are inherent to it like butter is to milk. Merely by being made up of five heaps, we are subject to this subtle form of dissatisfaction. However, this type of suffering is so subtle that it is practically imperceptible, and, for the most part, we are not even aware of it. It can be compared to a speck of dust in our hand: when one attains an advanced level of realisation at which most of the gross forms of suffering are dispelled, this kind of suffering becomes much more evident and so is perceived much more acutely, as if the speck of dust had lodged in our eye!

Influenced by a variety of factors, all other forms of suffering develop on the basis of the suffering of individuality. The second kind of suffering, which is more perceptible, is called the suffering of change. It is a form of suffering latent in what we ordinarily regard as happiness, pleasures, and comforts, whether mental or physical. It belongs to desires, attachments, and impermanence. It is the frustration or unhappiness experienced every time something we love or something that pleases us changes, deteriorates, or disappears.

The third kind of suffering is known simply as suffering because it causes pain and unhappiness. It is the suffering of suffering caused by pains and problems that lead from one to another in daily life.

THE MAIN KINDS OF HUMAN SUFFERING

Four main types of suffering affect humans: birth, old age, sickness, and death. Just thinking about these and being aware of their reality helps us to understand the unsatisfactory nature of samsaric or conditioned existence, allowing us to free ourselves from the attachments to ordinary existence and therefore to strive for liberation.

We have already mentioned the suffering of birth in the discussion on the bardo of birth to death. 

The suffering caused by illness is often intolerable. We are subject to the orders of doctors and have to undergo rigorous medical exams. We are dependent and become exhausted carrying out their instructions. We can't even sit up in bed, eat or drink, or satisfy our desires. At the end of the day, we still have to go through an interminable night of terrible pain and suffering.

The suffering caused by old age is equally great. Our body, once straight and strong, shrinks and becomes crooked, and we need a cane to hold ourselves up. Our hair turns grey and falls out; we become bald and lose our attractiveness. Our skin, once soft and smooth as Chinese silk, becomes a pile of deep, rough wrinkles, just as a lotus flower is pink immediately after blooming but becomes grey and creased when it fades. The body's strength wanes; whether standing or sitting, it becomes tired. Mind becomes weak, and we haven't the slightest bit of get-up-and-go for any activity. Senses lose their acuity: eyes no longer see clearly, ears cannot hear, the nose cannot smell, the tongue cannot distinguish flavours, and being touched no longer brings pleasure. Memories are unclear; what happens at one moment is forgotten in the next. We cannot adapt; we feel we no longer belong anywhere.

Our company isn't appreciated, and no one thinks about us except with pity. Our former wealth dwindles, as does our authority. Our possibilities for this life are finished, and our energy declines and vanishes. We realise there is only one thing ahead of us: death, and the thought depresses us. 

The suffering caused by death is such that when fear consumes us, we are utterly cut off from joy and seized by the torment of illness. Our mouth is dry, our face is distraught, and our shaky limbs can no longer move. We soil ourselves with saliva, sweat, urine, and vomit, and in our distress, we make harsh noises. After all their remedies have failed, the doctors give up on us.  Horrifying fantasies arise in our mind, causing terror and panic. The movement of our breathing stops and then, with our mouth and nostrils gaping, we go beyond this world completely upset by the great migration of death. We then enter into the unknown, sink into the abyss, and are carried away by the vast ocean, swept away by the winds of karma.

At the inevitable moment of departure, we must leave everything behind, abandoning wealth, privilege, influence, home, family, and our treasured body. Beads of sweat form on our face, and the various signs of the bardo of the moment of death gradually manifest. After these bardo experiences, we take birth yet again in a realm consistent with our karma.

In addition to these four great sources of suffering, humans must also experience having to separate-because of life events or death-from loved ones: father, mother, children, grandchildren, spouse, all those they dearly love and are attached to. Humans also endure meeting with beings that are hostile to them, having their things taken away, and being subjugated, abused, battered, killed, or put on trial. As humans, we also suffer from not getting what we want and not being able to keep what we have.

Now more than ever, in this era of rampant desires, we are constantly tormented day and night by material worries and desires, by attachment and hatred. It is now so important that we recognise the harmfulness of desires for, and attachment to, material possessions and passions. If we understand that all samsaric phenomena are as fleeting as waves on the surface of the water, merely illusory appearances, insubstantial as hallucinations or dreams, we will not be attached to them, and we will be able to content ourselves with what we have and remain happy, our minds open and at peace. 

In this way, by the practice of Dharma, we have the possibility of definitely becoming free from samsara and navigating beyond it to the supreme bliss of Buddhahood.