Buddhist Proof That All Emotional Pain
Is Caused By THINKING!

by
 
Doug Remington

My Buddhist friend, Prolongit, posted this wonderful Buddhist parable that proves this point beautifully:

“*Buddha told a parable in Sutra:

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at ...him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!*”

If anyone can tell us the name of the actual Sutra, please advise.

Buddhism is a Middle Path which is described in many ways. The above shows us the Middle Path, which lies on the Pin-Point-Of The Eternal-Now: that is, in the middle – free from the extremes of projecting into the future or dwelling on the past.

By examining our life, we discover that no emotional pain can exist on this Pin-Point-Of The Eternal-Now. By doing what is called analytic meditation we can see that every kind of mental pain and suffering is connected with a thought of either the PAST or the FUTURE. If I am angry, it's because I am THINKING about something that's about to happen. Or it's because I am THINKING about something that happened in the past – never because of what's happening now on the Pin-Point-Of The Eternal-Now:

Please don't take the Buddha's word for it. Analyze it yourself as I did. And I discovered that by forcing the mind onto this Pin-Point-Of The Eternal-Now, no emotional pain exists there.

Am I depressed?

Analyzing my mind, I discovered all of my depression was connected with events in my past. And sure enough, by forcing my mind onto the Pin-Point-Of The Eternal-Now, my depression disappeared. I was totally amazed. When I discovered this, it was one of the most profound things that ever happened to me.

The Buddha gave this teaching as I remember in connection with describing our Primordial or Normal Mind. All suffering according to Buddha is because we leave this state of Natural Mind. That is, it reacts automatically and instinctually – jumping to an opposite extreme – either to greed and anger or the opposite extreme of ignorance, which includes fear, depression or guilt. And this emotional pain is always connected with THINKING about the past or the future -- never when we are THINKING about now! 

There is a Best Selling Book, The Power of Now by Eckert Tolle that uses this principle as a way of ending all emotional pain. And this is certainly true. All emotional pain can be pacified this way.

There is no word for this Natural Mind of the Buddha in English. As far as I know, the word exists only in Sanskrit. It's called the Mind of Sattva. Consequently Buddha coined a new word to describe the path and the process of getting back to this Primordial or Natural mind. He called it the path of the Bodhisattva: that is, the path of always keeping the mind in this Normal State of Consciousness free from the POISONOUS extremes of anger, greed, fear, depression, guilt and ordinary ignorance.

But this is not the only way to achieve this Normal state of Mind, Sattva. However, it's an easy proof that all emotional pain is caused by THINKING – not the physical body -- nor events in the physical world. Mainly I used this method of staying in the, "Now," for many years, wasting my meditation time trying to get well emotionally – instead of trying to realize Ultimate Reality.

The Buddha actually gave better antidotes for pacifying emotional pain. The practice of Virtue as taught by Buddha is much better. The Antidote for fear is the virtue of Faith: that is, by taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Shanga – forcing the mind into faith in the Triple Gem -- I pacify fear. This also provides supernatural protection.

The Buddha gave Metta (prayer of Loving Kindness) as the Virtue to be practiced as an Antidote to anger. The antidote for Depression is the Virtue, Gratitude. And the Antidote for guilt is the Virtue of Repentance.

This is the path of the Bodhisattva: that is, constantly keeping the mind in Sattva - the eternal Now - or Right Wisdom, the 4^th of the 8 fold Path. But Sattva, or Natural Mind, is not the goal of Buddhism. Enlightenment is the goal. But Sattva is the jumping off point to Samadhi, a supernatural state of mind, that produces a Direct Experience of Emptiness. This is something very much like the Catholics Saints describe as Divine Ecstasy.

When I finally took to the path of the Bodhisattva, my meditation time was used for meditating on enlightenment – not wasting it on pacifying emotional pain. That's because I pacified the emotional pain as it arose during the day with Right Wisdom. Therefore, no need to do it in meditation most of the time. Sometimes, however, emotional pain just sticks and requires a great deal of work because it's sometimes so hard to dislodge.

The above parable is also a reminder not to allow the mind to wander into the past or present of good times while engaged in meditation: that is, to the delicious strawberries. The achievement of Sattva is important especially in meditation, because it's the jumping off point to enlightenment – not just because it also pacifies all emotional pain.

Very best

doug

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