Complete Dis-Stress - the Way of the Buddha
On the subject of Buddhism, the greatest confusion gripping Western humanist thought is confusion with regard to the use and comprehension of the concept of suffering.
All too easily, suffering is understood as inflicted suffering, be it inflicted by an unfortunate fate, by arbitrary acts, by malice or asininity.
In the received Greek-Humanist sense, and Christianity too is a continuation of Greek ideals, suffering is opposed to pleasure, failure is opposed to attainment, pain to well-being - always from the premise of attending to, correcting and bettering the difficulties and problems resulting from the cooperation of human beings, and from their interactions and interdependencies.
But our concept of suffering cannot be conferred to Buddhism of Hindu tradition, for in this school of thought, that which appears as suffering to us is simply karma - the world taking its course, impersonally, mechanically, functionally.
Suffering in the Buddhist sense is just karma in its entirety. Thus the hungry are told to remember, when eating, what is revolting about food, and the successful should consider how their success is lost to numerous misfortunes in the very moment it is achieved.
All the pleasure of the world is just the bait of malady, the tasty worm threaded onto the hook by the master of delusion in order to enmesh the mind within the world (the material), time and again...
For everything in the world is suffering, inevitable and ubiquitous - and freedom from suffering, which includes pain as well as pleasure, despair as well as euphoria, therefore cannot be achieved by the mind within the confines of this worldliness at all.
Accordingly, all circumstances and conditions which mystify human beings into having conquered suffering, having achieved a goal, being loving and being loved, are an illusion and a malign one for good measure - for such illusions only serve to consolidate the greater illusion that one could attain enduring happiness or even just contentment in this life.
There is no pleasure not already carrying the seed of malady in it, especially the malady of coveting the next pleasure just after the present pleasurable moments have ended.
And so this entire mass of suffering is fabricated from suffering in the sense of pain and sorrow as well as all the pleasures and successes, which in the end only serve to enmesh ever more deeply into worldly existence, and which only lead to greater suffering in this entanglement, more formidable loss through aging, sickness and ultimately death.
The solution to this dilemma which is offered by the Buddha is the utter renunciation of the world, and the entrance into the beyond-this-world - into the mental realm where all world-creations come to an end, which include the god-worlds and the worlds of the overmighty titans.
This way can not be trodden within the world. Confronting worldly challenges, developing motives causing engagement in the world and in life, cannot lead to delamination from this world and this entire mass of suffering; a world in which ultimately every creation already contains the seed of destruction.
Here, only renunciation and strict discipline within a prescribed ascetic way can lead to breaking the world's bracelets. The only interactive and interdependent momentum between Buddhism and the world can therefore be what little requisites the world can provide to those few who actually perambulate this way: some food (yesterday's leftovers), protection against the extremes of climate (plastic bags, cardboard, and an old woolen blanket), and medical administration of cough-syrup, in the event that meditation be interrupted by wheezing.
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If your karma is leading you onto the path of the true Buddhist, we will assist you dis-stressing yourself completely!
Our Offer:
We will trade, at no charge, everything you own for our Buddzie-Pack 1, consisting of one big empty cardboard box, one plastic bag, one old woolen blanket, one empty tin can (begging jar), one package of crackers, and a pair of sandals.
Go the way of the Buddha, if it is your karma! Become an ascetic and renounce everything worldly, you know it only hurts anyway!
(By request we offer broom clean dis-stress).Copyright 1999 by Freimann/Gefecht Art Projects
(Note: this was posted to the HUMOR section. The German original is still accessible via the Wayback Machine. I got permission to translate and post it here from the author. - Florian)
