Introducing Buddhism: A Guide for Western Beginners

Why Begin?

Whenever you arrive as a newcomer at a meditation class in Buddhism the teacher will wonder why you have come. Maybe you are coming because a friend has suggested it; maybe you have heard a radio programme; maybe you have read something exciting about Zen. Whatever it was, the teacher will want to go deeper.

Westerners usually seek to explore meditation or Buddhism for one or other of the following reasons:

You are feeling the stress of life or relationship and have heard that meditation offers relief and a return to peace of mind.

You cannot find a meaning for your life - everything seems rather pointless.

The religion into which you were born has let you down - its ideas and interpretations of life no longer appeal to you or make sense.

You have explored so many options in the market place of alternative religions and therapies that you are exhausted by the whole nonsensical business.

You are a carer - preoccupied with the concerns of others. The profession within which you operate seems to have few means of helping you. Perhaps Buddhism can help you look after yourself?

You have read or heard something about Buddhism that clicks - seems to make sense. You felt a response in the heart.

And then again it might be something else. The point is this: the issue lies in your concerns about your self, your relation with others and with the universe. A merely philosophical curiosity will not strike the teacher as serious. There are plenty of books on the shelves for that sort of interest. In Buddhism there is a need to do something - a practice.

The Buddha

Two thousand five hundred years ago Indian civilisation began to get complicated. Big cities, markets, business guilds and commerce were replacing pastoral life placing individuals in wholly new situations. The meaning of life and of being a person became a matter of renewed interest. Shamanic religion began to focus on the problems of being - of being a self, and began to develop systems of philosophy and practice. In many ways the situation paralleled that of today, changes in society provoking the need for new understandings of life.

The man known to us as the Buddha was the son of a ruler of the small state of the Shakya people situated in the foothills of the Himalayas. The boy's name was Gautama. At his birth astrologers forecast that he would either become a great monarch or a great religious teacher.

His father the king was most concerned that his heir apparent should become the former rather than the latter. Gautama was raised with every luxurious indulgence available for a young prince in his time and indeed he showed many of the characteristics that would be of value in a ruler. Yet, in himself, he was disturbed. He observed that among the common people beyond the palace walls there was stress, sickness, death and a longing for religious transcendence. In the palace he never heard of such things.

More and more he questioned the meaning of his luxurious life. It seemed increasingly pointless because fundamental questions of life and death were not being examined or addressed. On the very day his own son was born, and an heir to the kingdom thus achieved, he left his home and became a wandering ascetic.

He went deep into the forests of his time where the great teachers lived and taught. Since Gautama was highly intelligent, intuitive and high born several of these teachers wished that he would become their 'dharma heir' continuing to spread their teachings. Gautama remained unsatisfied however and eventually took off alone on a path of extreme austerity. Almost at the point of death he realised he was getting nowhere. He accepted a meal from a young woman who doubtless pitied his worn-out condition, settled below a great tree and, diving into a profound meditation, resolved to complete his quest.

After some hours the morning star arose in the pre-dawn sky. Gautama is said to have exclaimed,

"When the morning star first was, there was I"

and in the Dhammapada, a key Buddhist text, he is said to have announced:

"Oh housebuilder! You have now been seen. You shall build the house no longer. All your rafters are broken, your ridgepole shattered. My mind has attained unconditional freedom. Achieved is the end of craving."

Such words express the 'enlightenment' he had experienced, a profound insight that resolved his personal problems. The housebuilder is the self and the house the conditioned world of personal suffering.

As with all similar experiences the moment itself was ineffable. In the days that followed he thought deeply about what he had made real for himself. He came to understand that here was something that he should convey to others. He spent a long time living in caves near Bodhgaya working out how he could do this. As soon as he did so Gautama became known as Shakyamuni - the 'Sage of the Shakyas' and as the 'Buddha', one who has realised enlightenment.

Mystical experiences are not so rare in the world for they are part of the psychological inheritance of mankind. There are very few mystics however who can interpret them to reveal a profound understanding of the nature of life and express it for the multitude. The Buddha's understanding was of such depth that it is still profoundly relevant today: not least because in essence his method was scientific.

The Buddha had invented a new system of yogic meditation (vipassana) and it was assuredly this that led to his final insight. Most systems of his time induced trance like states known as "samadhi" in which the self was said to merge with the universal godhead or Brahman - like a "dew drop falling into an ocean". Try as he might the Buddha could not find any evidence for such a thing or place as this 'ocean'. His honest and critical mind examined the processes of meditation with alert accuracy and he saw that, although 'oceanic' states did arise, these samadhis were simply consequences of meditative trance. They were a product of practice and not any sort of ultimate condition. And indeed practitioners quickly return to everyday life after periods in samadhi with most of their prejudices intact.

The Buddha concluded that the mind was at all times in a state of dynamic movement and that everything that arises is a result of causes. No mind state, even a state of rest, was ever permanent, all experiences consisted in fleeting transience. There was no foothold for the anxious self craving security and personal permanence. The moment he gave up this desire the Buddha found himself entering the free flow of the universe itself in which he was an immersed participant. "I am not it yet it is all of me." as a later Chan master was to say. The Buddha experienced every apparently separate thing as co-participating and merging within a unified process of universal change. There was one root process of interdependence expressing itself as a great flux. Within that flux everything was connected right back to the beginning - just as the water in a river is connected back to the water of the spring. Hence in transpersonal insight he could exclaim metaphorically that when the morning star first was, there too was he.

This practice of the Buddha amounts to an examination of the processes of the mind under the experimental conditions of meditation. It is a form of research - inner rather than outer. This approach is just as experimental, just as 'scientific', as the objective studies of contemporary Science. Indeed in many ways the Buddha may be considered to have been the first scientist.

These results of inner enquiry have an uncanny parallel to the results of cosmological exploration by today's physicists and explorations of mind by psychologists. There is no serious conflict between Buddhism and Science in spite of the very different methods of approach and contrasting intentions. Beginners may perhaps find reassurance in this parallel. Ultimately we live in a great mystery but at least here we find a religious perspective not at all at odds with the deep sciences of our time.

The Four Noble Truths

The Buddha began his teaching ministry at Sarnath, a deer park outside the city of Banares, even in those days one of the major towns along the river Ganges in northern India. He expressed his ideas first in a number of pithy sayings that are sometimes described as the basic formulae. The first and foremost of these are the Four Noble Truths. These are:

Life is Suffering. Suffering is due to desire When desire is overcome suffering ceases. The Eightfold Path of practice. Namely

Right View Right Intention Right Speech Right Action Right Livelihood Right Effort Right Mindfulness Right Meditative Concentration

At first sight the first noble truth appears somewhat gloomy. 'Life is fun sometimes, isn't it?' you may well say and the Buddha would not deny it. Taking the long view however we can see that from a personal viewpoint human life is in many ways distressing. The term ' dukha ' translated as suffering means 'fundamentally unsatisfactory'. Economic stress, family rows, illness, accidents, climatic disaster, you name it - and then of course there is death. Even if we have a good time sometimes, these matters keep cropping up and have always done so. Why do we suffer so? The Buddha was not so concerned with things like thunderstorms or broken legs. He was concerned with our fundamental attitudes to life events. We are always wanting something we have not, or not wanting something we have. This undertow of desire generates the mental suffering we endure. Even a broken leg need not be so bad - we get time off to read a good book or have a rest from a stressful life. The Buddha tells us that suffering is basically because of our endless sense of lacking something - the lack of a basic and permanent security. The happenstance of life can never provide it. The Buddha says there is a way beyond suffering. Essentially this involves the replacement of the ignorance whereby we deny reality by the wisdom of knowing how things really are. With such wisdom in place the attitudes that sustain suffering disappear. The Buddha's list of recommendations requires us to practice 'Right'. What is this 'right'? I understand this as meaning mindful - Mindful Speech, Livelihood etc.

To understand the thrust of the Buddha's thought we need to examine the implications of his teaching. Our endless dissatisfaction arises through our ignorance. Instead of welcoming and understanding the transiency of the flow of life, its ever creative novelty, we seek blindly the security of being always young, always beautiful, always skilful, loved and loveable, always well off, never in debt, never failing exams, forever healthy and living for ever! Ridiculous - you may say. But look at yourself a little. Do not these absurd desires actually govern much of how you live your life? Ignorance consists not so much in not knowing but rather in denying impermanence. Emotionally we crave permanence - especially a permanent 'me'.

The Buddha investigated what his 'me' might be. And he could not find it. It is not that there is nothing there, rather what is there is an endless flow of mind activity generating ideas, feelings, desires, fears, hopes, attachments. But seek for the root of this in some entity and you will not find one. This activity is itself it. We impute the self on a process that is forever changing. For convenience sake in social interaction we 'reify' this activity, make it into a sort of 'thing', and name it Sarah or Peter. By naming a flowing process we make it appear solid, and we then become fearful lest this solid entity should decay. The me is essentially just an idea. Our mistake is rather like thinking of the river Thames as an 'it' forgetting a river is ever flowing water. If you look away, the river you saw has gone, yet there is the flowing water.

When the Buddha speaks of 'ignorance' he means not seeing, not taking on board the transience, the flow of life, the emptiness of things, but rather attaching oneself to hopes, fears and desires. In particular we seek the permanence of security, an existential safety of the self. It is easy to see that the desire that generates suffering is primarily the endless hunt for this impossible security. This is the fundamental 'lack' that alienates us from how things really are.

What then is Wisdom (prajna)? It is the insight that literally everything, self included, is a process of endless universal change 'empty' of any solid being, so-called inherent selfhood, as a thing independent from everything else. A tree standing there on the hillside looks independent enough but a moment's reflection shows it to be dependent on the soil, water, sunlight, pollen and seed-carrying winds or birds, and a green attitude in nearby humans. It does not exist by itself 'from its own side'. So it is with everything. You too.

Wisdom then is living in accord with this emptiness - this flow of transiency. Modern physics helps us to understand these matters. Even a rock is full of space in which electrons are whizzing around. And 'electron' is merely a name in a discourse about a process we barely understand. Matter is far from being conventionally material. By living with the flow we can escape the fear arising from our lack of permanent security. Living with such an insight may at first seem scary, yet it is to live in accord with the universe. The feeling of alienation is no longer there. You may throw away your paddles and let the river carry you downstream. Of course, if you wish, you may land on the banks from time to time but never forget that your basic home is the river not some seeming safe anchorage to which you become attached.

Unfortunately this is difficult to do. The ignorance that generates our conviction that I exist as a me that needs protection, credentials, status and security is all pervasive, probably embedded in our genes. It is there "from time without beginning". To challenge it and live in the wisdom of "seeing the nature" of reality is no simple matter.

Meditation through Mindfulness

Of course, like all great discoveries, viewed with hindsight the Buddhas realisation is only too obvious. If we are thoughtful we acknowledge the truth of it easily. Unfortunately a mere intellectual assent does not free us from suffering. Like a doctor the Buddha has set out a path, a way of the heart rather than the mind.

We need to sustain an awareness of the emptiness of our attachment to the falsely imputed, inherent thingness of everything and, understanding the self to be empty, we may turn our attention to others. They likewise suffer. We may feel compassion and seek to relieve their plight. Wisdom and compassion are the two wings of the bird of Buddhism. Both are needed to fly straight. Each reinforces the other. Yet, without ones own realisation one can be of little use to other people.

Mindfulness means sustaining this dual perspective in relation to everything one does. It all then becomes 'right'. Attitude, intention, speech, thought, livelihood, awareness and concentration when carried through in the light of mindfulness open up the path to the ending of suffering - the path to 'enlightenment'.

Merely thinking such thoughts does little good. To reach a heart-understanding requires contemplative meditation so that the path becomes one with oneself - replacing ego concern with wisdom.

Practice

We are usually in such an emotional mess or so profoundly preoccupied with affairs that the first thing we need to do is to calm the mind. Only then can one hope to gain some insight into its nature as a direct experience. Calming the mind and gaining insight into its nature are the twin bases of almost all the great meditation systems in Buddhism.

In his own statement on the subject the Buddha suggested we start by being mindful of that very process that keeps us alive - the breath. Carefully watching the breath and sustaining focus upon it allows our preoccupations with attachments, prejudices and fears to fall away. One catches glimpses of a silence of mind, a peaceful awareness without a specific object which we gradually realise to be the basis of mind itself. Continuing to practice, one extends mindfulness to the sitting body, the moving body, the thinking mind, the attitudes one has about life, finally to livelihood itself.

The mind is sometimes likened to a lake. The waves on its surface, like our fears and preoccupations, prevent our seeing into the depths. When the wind falls, the sky is simply mirrored in it's stillness and we can see into the silence of the deeps. This realisation opens a doorway to a practice that advances with time. In this practice there is a joy that comes from realising for oneself the truth of the teachings. It is this that the beginner needs to discover.

The Buddha was never dogmatic. He did not announce any startling truths about the universe, its origins or ending. Rather he focused on our human plight. He set out a path and invites us to test it out for ourselves. Like a scientist's experiment, his path is up for verification in the laboratory of your own mind.

For 2500 years this testing has been carried out in culture after culture. Sometimes the teachings have been re-expressed in the variant style of particular society but the fundamental principles have never changed. In our new century the basic insights remain with us, always ready for renewed testing. If this seems like a good idea to you - there is nothing to stop you starting right away.

To tread the Buddha's way successfully we have to pay attention to a number of conditions. It is not enough to sit on a cushion and learn to practice a meditative method. There has to be a clear resolution to change one's life in a certain direction. The first condition is morality, one needs to live an ethical life. The prime principle is to relate with others compassionately in awareness of suffering. One should not meditate to save one's self but rather to be able to relate more genuinely and peaceably with the world and other people. The Buddha recommended keeping five precepts in mind as guides to conduct for lay men and women. These are to live without killing, lying, stealing, having inappropriate sexual conduct or dulling the mind through unwise use of alcohol or drugs. The emphasis on these precepts differs slightly in differing cultures and they need to be related to the modern world but the focus on ethical living is clearly apparent.

These precepts are not 'commandments' the breaking of which will drop you in hell. Rather these are guidelines to avoid making mistakes. The greatest mistakes are always rooted in egotism. Mistakes lead to misery for oneself and others.

The masters show their compassion not only in supporting practitioners in their dilemmas but also by challenging them to show patience, insight and restraint. Many masters challenge the inherent egotism of their followers through giving them difficult or impossible tasks, putting them through demanding retreats or even through insulting them to see whether they can take it without egotistic and defensive responses and affronted anger. They may tick them off severely and sometimes unnecessarily to test their patience. These are all means to challenge the ego, our reactivity, our thoughtless prejudices and lack of mindfulness. Masters are sometimes difficult to live with. One has to remember the deep understanding and compassion that informs their behaviour. Can you be a Buddha without such training? Buddhists develop the capacity to meet such challenges head on and appropriately. Do not expect an easy ride. If you are not at sometime challenged by a teacher maybe it is time to move on.

The Everyday Path

Reading and studying or listening to passing teachers is of course useful but if you are serious you will need to find a local group with a reliable teacher who can help you with two main concerns. Firstly your attitude to life may need a radical reframing. Understanding how the Dharma (teachings) functions in the world is vital. By seeing how others get on and by testing the ideas yourself you may make headway in understanding and begin to feel very different about your life. Secondly you will need accurate instruction in how to meditate.

Choose carefully which presentation of contemporary Buddhism seems right for you. There are subtle differences and some may suit your temperament and others not. When you sense an affinity with a particular approach, try it out. It may be a mistake but there is little else you can do. Always realise that the whole investigation is under your control. Never allow yourself to be dominated by a group or its leader. If this appears to be happening, there is a serious fault in the teaching.

Similarly you need to check out teachers carefully. Even Asian teachers are not always what they seem to be. In particular, dramatically charismatic figures may be the least reliable. A teacher does not have to be perfect but he or she should acknowledge weaknesses. A problematic person with self-knowledge may yet have the particular strengths and insights that go with good teaching, those that may be helpful for you. If a teacher is honest, straightforward and above all kind, these are signs of reliability.

Sitting with a group with an honest leader is a good way to begin. From there you may attempt retreats at one or other of the very fine centres around the country. Do not get too carried away by ideas of 'enlightenment'. If you can become even a little wise and above all kind to others you are doing very well. In such simplicities you will find happiness even though the world remains a mysterious place and uncertainty rules.