Sometimes in Buddhist literature the expression, Right View, is used. Right View is one of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration and Right View. After Right View we have Right Thinking, Right Speech, and Right Action. And finally, Right Livelihood and Right Diligence.
There is a Sutra which provides a brief description of Right View given by the Buddha. He said, "Right View is the kind of view that is free from the notion of Being and Non-Being."
Right View is Free From Discrimination Between Opposites
Right View is the kind of insight that is free from discrimination, from the tendency to think dualistically. Suppose we look at this marker, and we can say that this end represents the “above” and this the “below”. Or if we put the marker horizontally we can think of the “left” and the “right”. In our mind the left is something opposite of the right. The above is something opposite to the below. Being is the opposite to Non-Being. Life is the opposite to Death. Happiness is the opposite of Suffering. And sometimes we want just one and we don’t want the other. We only want happiness and we don’t want suffering.
Suppose we think of the Kingdom of God or the Pure Land of the Buddha. We have the tendency to think, to believe that in the Kingdom of God there is no suffering, there is only happiness. And according to the Buddha, that’s not Right Thinking. Because suffering always goes with happiness together. Like life and death; we only want life we don’t want death. We want to eliminate death and keep only life. And that is not Right Thinking.
We want only the left and we don’t want the right. However, the fact is that if politically you are on the left, you cannot wish the right to go away - because if the right disappears altogether, the left is no longer there either.In Plum Village we grow Lotus flowers in all our Hamlets, and we know very well that without mud there will be no Lotus flower. You cannot grow Lotus flowers on marble - you need the mud.
Looking into a Lotus flower you see something very pure, very fragrant and you don’t think, you don’t have the impression that the Lotus flower can be made of mud that does not smell very well, that is not very clean. But looking deeply with mindfulness and concentration you can see the mud in the Lotus flower - without the mud, the Lotus flower cannot be.
The same thing is true with suffering and happiness, life and death. Death always goes in couple with life. If there is no death, there is no life. Like if there is no mud, there is no Lotus flower. And the biologists can practice looking deeply with us. When the scientists look into our body they see that birth and death happen in every moment. There are cells in our body that die in every moment in order for other cells to be born. Without dying, birth is not possible.
Birth and death are happening at the same time, and they always go together.Because we don’t want to look deeply, we think that now is life and death will be later; in 30 years, 50 years, 100 years. But in fact, left and right exist at the same time. Above and below exist at the same time.
So when God said, “Let there be Light,” the Light answered -- “I have to wait.”
God then asked, “But what are you waiting for?” And the light answered, “I am waiting for darkness, because we can only manifest together.”
So God said, "The darkness is already there." The light answered, "Well, then I'm already there also."The same thing is true with Being and Non-Being. There are theologians who say that God is the ground of Being. And we may ask if God is the ground of Being, then who will be the ground of Non-Being?
In fact, God transcends the notions of both Being and Non-Being. You cannot ascribe to God the notion of Being - if you do, you do not have Right View.Birth and death happen in every moment of our daily life. There are many cells who die in each moment, but we don’t have enough time to organize funerals for them. There are many cells who are born every moment, but we don’t have no time to celebrate their birthdays. Death is happening right now, right here - not something sometime later. We are experience death and dying in every moment, why are we afraid of dying?
The left and the right rely on each other in order to manifest. Whenever there is the left the right is there right away.
Inter-Being
In Buddhism there is the term Inter-Being. The left cannot be without the right. The right cannot be without the left. Suppose we try to eliminate the right. We use something to cut it out and throw it away, but then a new right forms immediately. So right and left they lean on each other in order to manifest, and that is why light has to wait for darkness in order to manifest - at the same time. And we should train ourselves to look at reality this way.
Happiness is Made of Non-Happiness Elements,
just as a Flower is Made of Non-Flower Elements...
When we meditate on suffering, and happiness, we know that happiness is made of non-happiness elements. It’s like this flower. This flower is made only of non-flower elements. When we look deeply into the flower we see the sunshine. Sunshine is not flower. It is a non-flower element. And without that non-flower element a flower cannot be. A flower cannot be by herself alone. A flower has to Inter-Be with sunshine. We can see a cloud inside. A cloud is not a flower. It is a non-flower element. But without a cloud no flower is possible. If there is no cloud there will be no rain and nothing can grow. So that is how we know that the flower Inter-Is with the cloud.
In the flower we find the presence of time, space, the earth, minerals, the gardener. There are many non-flower elements that have come together in order to help the flower to manifest. And if we withdraw, or remove all of these non-flower elements there is no flower left. So we can say that a flower cannot Be by herself alone. She has to Inter-Be with everything in the cosmos. A flower Inter-Is with non-flower elements.Happiness is like a flower. Happiness is made only of non-flower elements. And we should meditate on that. It’s like the Lotus flower which is made of non-Lotus elements, including the mud.
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The Relationship Between Happiness and Suffering
There is a very close relationship between happiness and suffering. We should not run away from suffering in order to seek happiness. The teaching of the Buddha on the Four Noble Truths reflects this.
Happiness is made of elements like understanding and love.
If you don’t understand someone. If you don’t see his suffering and difficulties, you cannot love him and make him happy.If a father does not understand the suffering of his son, the difficulty of the son it is impossible for that father to love and make his son happy. So understanding is very crucial.
To love means to understand. If you cannot see the suffering and the difficulties of the other person you cannot love him or her, or make him or her happy. This is very certain.
So what we can say is that understanding first of all is to understand the suffering, the difficulties, the afflictions; because there is suffering, there is difficulty within ourselves.And since we have the tendency to run away from our suffering, our difficulties we have no chance in order to understand our own suffering.
And therefore the Buddha advises us not try to to run away from our own suffering. We have to come home to ourselves, and embrace our suffering and look deeply into it. And thanks to this kind of deep looking, understanding will arise and compassion is born.
Understanding and compassion make happiness possible.Suffering and the First Noble Truth
According to the teaching of the Four Noble Truths, the First Noble Truth is “ill-being” or suffering. And that truth should be understood. When the truth of suffering is understood, compassion and love is born. And happiness is possible only when understanding and compassion are there.
Imagine that in the Kingdom of God there is no suffering. Imagine there is no mud for you to grow Lotus flowers. I do not want to send my children to a place where there is no suffering, because in such a place he has no chance to cultivate understanding and compassion. And without understanding and compassion, a person cannot be a happy person. So suffering is the mud that can help create the Lotus.
If you have suffered that is good, because you now have some ingredients. If you know how to make good use of the suffering, you can create happiness. If you know how to handle the mud, to make good use of the mud you can very well create Lotus flowers. Lotus flowers are made of non-Lotus elements including mud. Happiness is made of non-happiness elements including suffering.
Therefore the understanding of suffering is crucial to create happiness. And if we try to always run away from suffering we have no chance. That is why the Buddhist teachings begin with afflictions, suffering. Look deeply into our own suffering so that understanding and compassion can arise.So we can have another definition of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is a place where there is understanding and love, and happiness. And in order to cultivate understanding and love you need suffering. The Kingdom of God is a place where people are not overwhelmed of suffering. The Kingdom of God is a place where people know how to make good use of suffering in order to create happiness, because if there is no suffering there is no happiness. That is the non-dualistic way of looking at things. You cannot just choose only life, happiness and ban death, ban suffering.
We know that a good practitioner should know how to create joy and happiness. A good practitioner should also know how to handle suffering. Creating happiness is an art, but to handle suffering is also an art.
To handle suffering is an art, and if you know how to handle your pain, your sorrow, your fear you know how to create happiness. The two things are just the same thing; to learn the art of happiness and to learn the art of handling suffering. It’s the same thing.
