Open Buddha

This was posted in the Buddhists community today that I frequent on Livejournal. I find it appropriate based on various thoughts I’ve had for the last couple of years. What it means for life changes for me in the long run remains to be seen (and may surprise people).

“Spiritual practice is not a shortcut to the American Dream nor is it an embellishment to a comfortable life. Dharma addresses the root causes of suffering and requires that we take a hard look at the preconceptions that maintain our worldview and perpetuate our problems. As much as success seems to be the source of the good things in life, happiness included, success isn’t the goal of spiritual practice. Our ideas about success are themselves based on preconceptions and are also part of a self-perpetuating cycle preventing us from achieving the genuine success and happiness that we seek.

“The Buddhist tradition addresses preconceptions about success head-on with an eight-term differential diagnosis called “the eight mundane concerns,” eight orientations toward the pursuit of happiness based on unexamined assumptions. Fixation on these concerns subverts our best efforts, leading either to counterfeit success or true frustration.

“The eight mundane concerns consist of four pairs of priorities: [1] the pursuit of material acquisitions and [2] the avoidance of their loss; [3] the pursuit of stimulus-driven pleasure and [4] the avoidance of discomfort; [5] the pursuit of praise and [6] the avoidance of blame; and [7] the pursuit of good reputation and [8] the avoidance of bad reputation.

“There is nothing bad about having material acquisitions — a car, a house; and, conversely, poverty is not necessarily a virtue. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a sunset, a good book, pleasant conversation, or beautiful music. It is not a bad thing to be praised. Being loved and respected by others is not bad either. On the other hand, it is not bad to be rejected by others if you are leading a wholesome and meaningful life. Many accomplished Dharma practitioners are content and happy living in total poverty. Reputation may go up and down, but it is possible for contentment to remain constant. The true source of happiness does not lie in mastery of the eight mundane concerns. Rich, poor, praised, blamed, stimulated, bored, respected, reviled — none of these mundane concerns are in themselves sources of happiness. Nor do they prevent happiness.

“The problem is that when we focus on mundane concerns as a means to happiness, life becomes a crap shoot. There are no guarantees. If you aspire to material wealth, you may not get it, but if you do, there is no guarantee you will be happy. If you aspire to pleasure, once a stimulus is over, so is satisfaction. There is no lasting happiness in scurrying after praise. People who are respected and famous tend to have the same personal problems as everyone else. The fatal shortcoming of the eight mundane concerns is that they are counterfeit Dharma, misguided ways of seeking happiness, and by habitually mistaking mundane concerns for genuine Dharma, our efforts to achieve genuine happiness are continually undermined.”

[B. Alan Wallace, Buddhism with an Attitude. Snow Lion Publications: New York, 2001. p19-20]