Awakening the Buddha Within _ Eight Steps to Enlightenment - Lama Surya Das [39]
To understand why the Dharma teaches that the insatiable thirst and clinging of craving causes life’s problems, you have to be very clear about what Craving and Clinging with capital Cs do. Have you ever heard someone say, “I wanted it/him/her so badly I was out of my mind,” or “I would do anything to get [fill in the blank]”? The issue with craving is that it grabs control of your mind and your life. It takes over. In its most intense form, it is like being possessed by a demon.
How many hours of your day do you spend on a treadmill of activity trying to get what you think you want? At what point do all those endless hours spell out obsession? How much of your mind and time is spent fantasizing about the things you desire? It’s all too easy to use up most of the hours in our lives being obsessed with romance, career, money, unrequited or turbulent love, hobbies, sex, or pleasure. Like a muddy cloud, craving obscures your unfettered, radiant spiritual nature.
In this culture who can resist an almost mindless thirst for sensual pleasures, wealth, or power? There are so many billboards, so many advertisements, and so many shopping malls grabbing our attention. Don’t you often feel buffeted by the gusts of “coming attractions” clamoring for your attention? Catalogues arrive in the mail daily. How can we learn to look at them without craving the Adirondack chairs, the outdoor equipment, the overstuffed sofas with removable slipcovers, the perfect winter jackets worn by the equally perfect models, or even the models themselves? What can we do with our craving in a world in which we are all encouraged to lead fantasy lives in which we are always investing in the uncertain future, waiting and hoping to be picked up and carried off by a savior on a white horse, in a red convertible, or even in a friendly spaceship.
There is a one-word antidote to thirst or craving: wisdom. The wisdom of freedom from craving. The secret teachings of Tibet tell us that we can rediscover our innate wisdom, awareness, and inner joy through spiritual practices, including meditation, self-inquiry, prayer, and the cultivation of our naturally warm, tender, loving heart. Wisdom is the means to transcend craving and transform a treadmill existence into a lovely inspiring garden walk. This is true freedom.
Speaking to his disciples, the Buddha said, “Whoever in this world overcomes this craving so hard to transcend will find that suffering falls away like drops of water falling from a flower.”
FACT OF LIFE #3
The Third Noble Truth is that nirvana exists, and that it can exist for you. Nirvana is inconceivable inner peace, the cessation of craving and clinging. It is the end of suffering. Nirvana is liberation, everlasting freedom, fulfillment, and enlightenment itself.
Where is nirvana? If it’s not right here, it is nowhere. So how do we experience it? Jesus Christ taught that the kingdom of heaven is within, and always available to everyone. The Tibetan masters teach that nirvana is ever present, just on the other side of our knot of clinging. According to the Tibetan teachings of Dzogchen, we can actually experience nirvana in a moment. It’s not something that we have to build up or fabricate; it’s available through spiritual breakthrough. These are the “Aha!” experiences that can be precipitated by simply letting go, by relinquishing craving, attachment, greed, and delusion, by waking up even for a moment from the dream of our semiconscious lives.
The word nirvana etymologically means extinction of thirst and the annihilation of suffering. Buddhist