Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org

causes us to suffer. That is the second noble truth - that's
really all it means, that desire for things to be this way or
that way or for obtaining this or that object - is really the
single, solitary cause for all suffering.
The wisdom that we're trying to gain is a very simple set of
truths; for that reason itself it can be quite difficult to
internalize. Our minds aren't ordinarily programmed to
accept simplicity; our minds are programmed to make things
complicated out of habit. When we hear that all of our
experience is unsatisfying, we immediately come up with
various objections, theories about how happiness can
actually be found in this or that experience. We may think it
to be a very pessimistic teaching, due to our long-acquired
views and beliefs about how satisfying the objects of our
desire must be. As a result, we miss the important fact that
it's the truth.
No matter how much we believe, wish, pray, or theorize
otherwise, when we investigate for ourselves, observing
experience empirically - when we stop speculating and start
observing, stop believing and start learning - we cannot deny
the simple truth that nothing in this universe can possibly
bring us true happiness or peace. When we see reality
clearly for what it is, we cannot deny the observable truth
that clinging to anything is cause only for greater suffering.
In meditation practice, our inherent inclination towards
complexity can become a real problem. We try our best as
teachers to bring our students back to simple observation,
asking questions that help them really come to understand
reality for what it is - simple questions, like: "Are the
movement of the right foot and the movement of the left
foot one thing or separate things?"
This is a very simple question with a very simple answer, and
yet immediately the mind tries to analyze it, turn it into a
philosophical or theoretical question. The purpose of the
questions we ask meditators is to test whether the meditator
is able to relate to reality objectively, or whether they are
caught up in projections, judgements and views. The first
step in meditation is to attain right view, which means giving
up all theoretical views and beliefs. Right view is not really a
view at all; it means to just see things simply as they are, to
128