| | So, I've been reading some articles on pragmatic dharma, and I keep running into people dismissing "niceness" as a kitschy or ignorant view of buddhism. This seems to be a common thread here as well, both in how people treat one another and how they talk about attainment. I'd like to take a moment to defend niceness - in all it's kitschy glory - as not only a fundimental part of buddhism, but the actual goal and result of practice.
If we look at the three trainings - morality, view, and concentration - two of the three are aimed at cultivating and maintaining a positive and kind state of being. In the suttas where the buddha talks about the full method (see any of the "in brief" suttas), he begins by explaining how right speech/action/livelihood are the ground of the practice, they should be perfected to create the "tranquility of blamelessness." From here, only after this way of living has been "handed the reigns," a person begins to practice the jhanas - which arise specifically because of the tranquility of blamelessness. Then, after reaching the 4th jhana, this person turns their mind to insight.
I think we forget that buddhism is a religion. It is based on the belief that we are trapped by our karma, and the only escape is to stop accumulating karma and step out of the cycle of rebirth based on desires. People who believe this sincerely would have been more interested in how they were treating other people - and how they felt about other people - than how they experienced the world personally. Right speech and action - which make up 1/4th of the eight fold path - specifically say that we should only say things that are pleasant, and we should only do actions that have no possibility of hurting another person. The point of cultivating concentration and following the training rules was to ensure that the practitioner could have complete control, not only over what they say and do, but also over how they feel. Before insight practice is even mentioned by the buddha, he says that the four divine abodes should be practiced to a level of concentration where they simply go on effortlessly.
I think this kind of training is specifically designed to facilitate concentration and ease of living. Because there is never a time when it is appropriate to be unpleasant, being nice, specifically, becomes an easy solution. You are no longer required to defend yourself from other people, find an insult, match wits, etc. You are no longer required to try to convince anyone of anything, hold a stong opinion, or feel there is any reason for malice to exist. The buddha went so far as to say that, if you were being beaten by robbers in the woods, you should endeavor to feel compassion and kindness towards them. There is even a sutta where he talks about being skinned alive and roasted over a pit. He wasn't messing around!
I see this as just as much the "good news" of buddhism as the concept of non-duality. The buddha is telling us to treat out anger, malice, and aversion as completely unnessiscary. To watch ourselves for it and get rid of it as soon as we see it. To treat it as a cancer to be removed.
This is why I think people have the view that buddhism is about niceness. The monks who train sincerely, are training to be nice, kind, and loving in all circumstances. I think we're going to miss the whole point of the practice if we don't make the endeavor ourselves.
EDIT: Maybe the main reason for this is that anatta is translated to "no-self," as in, there is no self. If there is no self, there is nothing to fix. |