Best Ideas from Buddhism
5 enlightening ideas from Buddhism which have transformed my life
1. Suffering (Dukkha)
The most crucial and realistic aspect of Buddhism lies in its ruthless acknowledgement of suffering in life. In our modern culture of overstimulating advertisements and pleasure-driven living, we tend to assume that life needs to be “good” by default and any affliction to be a “problem”. You should have a ripped body, you should have a meaningful job that pays you well, you should have a perfect partner and you should do well in life. And above all, you should constantly be happy and pursuing even greater levels of happiness. And if you fall short of this heavenly bliss, something is wrong….it’s time for you to buy this new gadget so that you can live happily ever after!
Buddhism flips this entire worldview on its head. The whole philosophy starts off with this idea (the First Noble Truth) that life is full of suffering. Life is not happy, not blissful, not good by default. When things are looking bleak or are falling apart, it is nothing abnormal, because life is inherently painful in the first place. If you have a job that makes you feel half-dead, it is not something wrong that is happening in your life. It is just the inherent suffering of life manifesting itself. Whatever you are struggling with is a normal, expected part of existence. In short, “life sucks” (ouch!).
This worldview at first sounds incredibly pessimistic. After all, if life is inherently bad, why do anything? And how can we be happy? And if life is just full of suffering, what’s the point of living? Fortunately, Buddhism doesn’t just say that life is suffering and end the chapter but it gives us some practical lessons that can alleviate this suffering and inch us towards cultivating peace. Suffering is an umbrella term for whatever afflictions and insecurities we face in life: grief, anger, anxiety, depression, boredom, existential crisis, reading long boring articles like this one, etc. Keeping “suffering” at it’s focal point, Buddhism shows us the path to end it (which, I guess, is too detailed to be described in a single article)
2. Non-Self (Anatta)
Modern culture is individualistic and meritocratic. While the idea of self-improvement is good and important (after all we do want our lives to be good), the problem happens when one starts having unrealistic expectations. We expect that losing some weight and getting a promotion will “make us happy” and be a cure-all for life’s pain. When we achieve something though, after a while it just feels “normal” and the next target presents itself. And one day we realise that in the race to perfection, we have not really lived our life. The reason for this culture of hustle is our unhealthy obsession with the “self”. We think we were born with some special purpose and that our ideas and our lives need to produce something extraordinary for our lives to be worthwhile.
Buddhism rejects this idea of self. It tells us that there is no birth and no death, that “you” don’t really exist. Things are just changing from one thing to another (more on this later) and your self (a.k.a your ego) is just an illusion which is causing you to suffer. The way we can practically interpret this is that we should not take ourselves and our lives too seriously. Whatever imperfections exist, whatever tragedies happen, we should not take them personally. We should let go of things life has taken away from us, as if those things are “returned” rather than lost. (Read my article: Don’t Take Life So Seriously)
3. Interconnectedness
Continuing the idea above of no-self, we must realise that everything is interconnected. The air molecules I exhale are in turn inhaled by other beings. The food I eat is turned into various forms. The energy released is converted to my actions which influence the world around me. The excreta might become food for bacteria and a source of nutrients for plants. After I am gone, maybe my remains will be converted to the soil and some beautiful flowers will grow in it. I am made of DNA received from all my ancestors, hence I am connected with them. There are endless examples through which we can see the interconnectedness of reality. The moment we see ourselves as distinct from our surroundings (duality), there is suffering. In the form of loneliness, or ego, or narcissism. When we see ourselves as a part of a bigger whole, and everything to be one grand whole (non-duality), our pride and egotistical viewpoints vanish. Buddhism identifies three kinds of pride:
- I am better than others
- I am worse than others
- I am as good as others
Basically, the moment we see “I” and “others” as different and start comparing, we are sowing the seeds for suffering. In reality, there is just suffering: of you and of others, and by being compassionate rather than competitive we can help everyone suffer less.
4. Impermanence (Anicca)
The Three Marks of Existence are Impermanence, Non-self, and Suffering (some scholars also say Imperamanence, Non-self and Nirvana). We should always be mindful of the fact that everything is impermanent. Our emotions, our bodies, our loved ones, our jobs, our cities and world and planet and ultimately the Universe; everything is impermanent and transient. When we accept that things are impermanent, we start valuing their presence in our life. When we look into our friend’s eyes and see that the time with them is limited, we cherish every moment. When we see our beloved home and realise that our experience is impermanent, we begin to value our limited time in that home even more. And ultimately, the fact that our own life is impermanent makes us value our life and be grateful for everything that has been given to us. (Read my article: Contemplating death makes life good)
5. Self-Compassion
We are all taught by our parents, teachers, elders and scripture to be kind to others. But we are seldom taught to be kind to ourselves. Because of our modern hustle culture, the idea of being hard on yourself in order to improve is often encouraged. Not only is it unsustainable, but research has shown that it is actually detrimental to our mental health. From a Buddhist perspective, there is already enough suffering in life. We don’t need to add to that suffering by making ourselves suffer even more, even if it is to “improve”.
Self-criticism, guilt and shame are extremely destructive emotions and can spiral down a person into deeper levels of anguish and depression. Shame makes society peaceful but individuals depressed. People are nowadays ashamed of their failures, ashamed of their bodies, ashamed of their desires, ashamed of just about every affliction that life inevitably presents. The way to stop suffering like this is self-compassion. Offer yourself compassion rather than criticism for all you have been through. Remind yourself that life is hard, and it is our common struggle that unites us as a species. Nobody is suffering alone. Everyone has an inner battle. Give yourself comfort like you would give to a friend who is grieving. Even hug yourself and love yourself (it releases the hormone oxytocin which, to put a long story short, is a great hormone for a healthy life). And after you give yourself comfort, remind yourself of all the sources of joy: the trees, the blue sky, the touch of your feet to the ground, the feeling of breath entering your nostrils, etc. Make this a practice and see how much happiness you experience in your day-to-day life!
