Hi everyone, it’s Judi Cohen, and this is Wake Up Call 449. For the last few weeks I’ve been talking about suffering, so today I want to try to put suffering in context.
In the ancient mindfulness texts, it’s said that mindfulness is about one thing and one thing only: suffering and the end of suffering. The Four Noble Truths are the framework for that. So to put suffering in context, let’s unpack those Four Noble Truths over the next few Wake Up Calls and today, let’s look at the First Noble Truth.
The First Noble Truth says that there is suffering. So in a way, we’ve already talked about it over the last few Wake Up Calls: the ordinary suffering of the pain & sorrows of life, and of death; the suffering of change; and the suffering of insecurity: how, deep down and sometimes at the surface, we notice we’re on fundamentally shaky ground, just here for a minute.
The Second Noble Truth, which I’ll talk about next week, says there’s a reason why we suffer; there’s a cause. The Third Noble Truth says, suffering can end – we can cultivate a life which has much less…or possibly even no, suffering. The Fourth Noble Truth is the path to that end, to the end of suffering.
Since I’ve talked about what suffering is already, what I want to say about the First Noble Truth today, is that suffering is a good thing. Which might sound strange, but from a mindfulness perspective, it’s a big premise: that suffering is a good thing, and the reason for that is because without suffering, there can be no possibility of understanding what suffering is, its cause, its end, and liberation.
I’m not saying this is true because I don’t know. It could be that other beings suffer and can come to the end of suffering and attain liberation, and we humans just don’t know that. But as far as we do understand, other beings don’t wring their paws or ruminate over not getting what they want or getting what they don’t want. They might fear a predator but again as far as we know, they don’t have an existential fear of death. And again from what we know they either don’t notice, or notice and are fine with, the ever-changing, ephemeral nature of life and don’t feel either secure or insecure, as we understand those words, about living on shaky ground.
When I say, only human beings experience suffering and other beings don’t “wring their paws,” I’m pointing to a sliver – but a foundational sliver – of the cosmology of mindfulness.
So I just said, “other beings” and talked about wringing paws, but there are more two kinds of beings, more than just humans and animals. In this cosmology, there are six, and they’re called “realms of existence.” The Six Realms of Existence include three “lower” realms: the animal realm, hell realm, and realm of hungry ghosts; and three “higher” realms: the god realm, the jealous god realm, and us: the human realm.
In the lower realms, according to this cosmology, it’s not possible to wake up, to attain liberation. For example, animals are focused on basic existence: food, shelter if they’re sheltering animals, reproduction, escaping predators. There’s neither time nor mental space for practice. This is true for different reasons in the other four non-human realms as well.
Plus – maybe you know where this is going – this isn’t just cosmology. We humans can also live in these realms. We might experience not having enough food or not having adequate shelter or the conditions that enable us to love and reproduce safely. We might feel that our whole life is about escaping predators. We might even feel that, and have a perfectly reasonable home and food budget and community, but because of trauma in or lives, or intergenerational trauma, the objective benefits or relative safety of our circumstances are obfuscated. Or we may fall prey to the dominant societal narrative of never having enough material wealth or the “right” community. As lawyers, we might feel like our whole work life is set up to avoid or attack predators…and this permeates our non-work life as well. And if our experience is like this, if we’re essentially living in the animal realm, we, too, are so concerned with survival that we can’t wake up.
The hungry ghost realm is similar. There, beings live in limbo, with big bellies and tiny mouths, never satisfied. Even if we’re very much alive, if our experience is of never being satisfied with who we are, what we have, what we have to offer, then our focus is there. And so we also can’t practice from there. Also can’t wake up from the hungry ghost realm.
The hell ream is one in which beings are consumed by anger and hate. It feels like some of our country, some of our world, is living in a hell realm right now. When we live in this realm, it’s impossible to practice because anger and hatred distract us, preoccupy us. They might even be burning us up.
In the god realm, everything is blissful. I know people who live here: they have more than plenty…and so, they have no reason to question anything, or to look outside their bubble. No reason to stretch, or grow, or wake up. I also know people in the jealous god realm, which is a place of striving for power: at least two politicians come to mind right now, who appear very different in character but who also appear to me, anyway, to be living in the jealous god realm. Their thing is gaining or holding onto power. They’re fueled by ego. Again, no incentive to wake up.
Which leaves the human realm. When we aren’t living in a hell realm, not living in a hungry ghost realm, not living in the animal realm or the god or jealous god realm, we are these amazing beings: intelligent, perceptive, intuitive, with these great big hearts and mind and for many but not all, able bodies. A place where we have the mental, emotional, spiritual if you will, and other space, to devote ourselves to our practice.
The human realm is the Goldilocks realm. It’s the place where we’re not in survival mode, not full of hate or desire, not checked out or trying to dominate the world. And from that realm, with our intelligent, perceptive, intuitive minds and hearts, we can gain intimacy with our habits and patterns. We can become inquisitive about how to cultivate them to better serve and connect with others. And over time, eventually, we can wake up, little by little, day by day. And maybe even, someday, attain liberation.
Let’s sit
