Suffering & Self Realization

“Be careful not to be tormented by yourself.”-III Shinkun 2-24

The sages of all authentic spiritual traditions have taught that life is filled with suffering. The Buddha understood the problem of suffering to be so central to the human experience that he included it in his Four Noble Truths, and the Abrahamic traditions recognize that humanity suffers due to misuse of free will. Hinduism agrees on this, pointing out that we misuse our liberty and fall into the awful trap of maya (the illusory energy), and suffer. Konko Daijin, whom I cited at the opening, taught an invaluable truth, which connects very easily to that of the other spiritual traditions. Our suffering is often, though not always, self-generated. Primarily this is due to a lack of knowledge regarding the Self. And sadly, existential questions often go unanswered in many modern religious settings.

Everyone, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or age, has at some point asked themselves the existential questions. It may take longer for some than others, but rest assured, the questions will be asked. Who am I? What am I? How did I get here? Why am I here? Is there meaning to life, or are the Materialists correct when they say life is ultimately meaningless outside a manufactured meaning? These form only the groundwork for even deeper questions of human existence. Those who actually pursue answers eventually find even more troublesome questions. Questions like the following.

Am I just a highly evolved animal?

Am I just the body?

Is my mind a product of electrical impulses in the matter of my brain, or am I something beyond the material body?

What is consciousness? Is it evidence of the soul, or is it just an effect of the brain, a purely biological function?

Is there a Divine Being? If so, what is my responsibility to the Divine Being, if any?

Currently, the most popular voices in the confusing milieu of competing ideologies that is Modernity are the Materialist and the Post-Modernist. The Materialist rejects any notion of anything beyond or above the material world. There is no room for the transcendent in the mind of the Materialist. All is a product of nature, and nature itself of the cold, chaotic processes of evolution. G.K. Chesterton, an early 20th century thinker, recognized as far back as 1920, that many were, in effect, worshiping science, and thus were transforming science into a philosophy of life-a religion. He wrote, “When science becomes religion, it becomes superstition.”

We can call that religion or superstition Scientism. This religion rejects any claim of miracles, any argument for the existence of transcendence, and any evidence of a human soul. These perennial spiritual truths are regarded as the primitive superstition of humanity that only serves to inhibit the advancement of human society, keeping it from fulfilling its potential, whatever that might be in purely Materialistic terms. For this reason, religion-all spirituality-must be opposed on the grounds of a claimed love for humanity. Materialists labor under the misapprehension that those asking questions and find themselves led by those questions to spiritual life, are discouraged from understanding the world. This isn’t at all true. Christianity and Islam, perhaps more than any other religions, have contributed immensely to the sciences. In fact, the spiritual adept understands truth and reality (the way things really are) with far more clarity than the Materialist, who essentially reduces the human experience to that of any animal-simply working, eating, sleeping, mating and defending our little share of the material world. And indeed, most people live like this, causing themselves much suffering and anxiety.

Identity

But, before we can adequately address the issue of suffering, we have to address the question of identity.

“Why does it feel like something inside? Why is all our brain processing-vast neural circuits and computational mechanisms- accompanied by conscious experience? Why do we have this amazing inner movie going on in our minds? I don’t think the hard problem of consciousness can be solved purely in terms of neuroscience.”– David Chalmers, NYU Philosophy Professor 

The question of who we are is intimately linked with the question of what we are. We can all readily see that we are beings of body (a human, biological form), and mind. The question we have to really answer is, what is mind, or consciousness? If I were to ask you who you are, your answer would likely begin with, “I am…”, and then proceed to describe some aspect of yourself. Usually, it is answered in the following ways:

• I am male/female

• I am human

• I am (fill in personal name).

• I am African, European, Japanese, Mexican, etc.

We will generally answer with biological or national/tribal designations, or personal names. The problem is none of these actually answers the question. Sure, they give me biological information as to your physical identity, nation of origin and ethnicity, but never address who that “I” is who is answering me. Perhaps we need to ask, who is the “I” that perceives the material world and comprehends it? Who is the “I” that is aware? Is this “I” just the effect of matter; the illusion created by complex electrical impulses in the brain? When you experience good food, a beautiful sunset, or pleasant music, is it just the body that is experiencing? Is it just the tongue, the eye and the ear? Is this “I” at all distinct from the body?

Human consciousness establishes a very profound reality that cannot lightly be ignored. Our brains possess qualities that no animal brain does, which makes us far more intelligent and creative. We have the ability to speak through a complex vocal system. Using the brain, we can observe things at will, contemplate a wide variety of interests and issues, make abstractions and think about spatially and temporally remote objects. Our bodies are so equipped that we have been able to master our environment, harness the elements of the natural world and create a higher standard of existence through the various sciences. We find nothing even remotely comparable in the animal kingdom. Obviously, we are quite different from animals, no matter how desperately the Materialist would deny so. 

The Self

In our quest for Self-Realization, we have to begin by defining Self. As we have touched on, we tend to think of Self in terms of name, family heritage, ethnicity, country of origin, employment, relationships to family members, etc. These are all correct in their respective experiences, but not in the ultimate sense, which is what we are trying to get at in regard to Self-Realization and suffering.

The word Self actually refers to our objective existence-our objective created identity. All of those other definitions we apply to ourselves are simply various layers of understanding Self, much like peeling an onion with all its layers. At the very center of our identity is the ultimate objective Self. The following syllogism, based on the Kalam cosmological argument of the great Islamic mystic and philosopher Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad aṭ-Ṭūsiyy al-Ġazzālīy, will help us to understanding the Self.

Anything that begins to exist, has a cause.

Humanity began to exist.

Therefore, humanity has a cause.

Let’s think on our syllogism for a moment. What is the cause of humanity? Considering the complexity of the human mind and body, the cause would of necessity be complex itself. Since we are beings of personality, this cause would also need to possess personality, since personality could not be generated from impersonal matter or energies. As personality is the characteristic of a person, this in turn means this source must be in some sense a “person”, though perhaps not in the exact sense we understand the word. In order to be the cause of something that began to exist, this cause must have preexisted what it brought into being. And since we have a concept of Self and understand that we possess the ability to know the Self, this cause must be the Absolute Self, and we are the contingentSelf since we are the caused. And finally, to be capable of bringing humanity and the universe into existence with such complexity, precision, and attributes, this cause must be powerful. The conclusion one reaches is that this transcendental cause is the ground of all being and what we call God, or Allah.

So what does this mean in our quest for Self Realization? If indeed we are the result of a complex transcendent, powerful personality, then we too are in our very essence complex, transcendent, and powerful (even if only in quality) personalities. All of the authentic traditions of the world recognize this Self to be the Soul, Kokoro, or Atman. For example, the Bhagavad Gita says:

“The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.” -Bhagavad Gita 3.42

Suffering

And now we come to suffering. Our suffering is primarily rooted in our misidentification with the material world and its energies. We desire wealth, fame, power, sex, etc., and we spend so much energy chasing them, so much effort, so many years, and always end up unfulfilled. We suffer when we don’t have what we desire, we suffer when we do have what we desire, and the result is anger, frustration, substance abuse, nihilism and all too often, premature death. You must understand, you are not merely this body. Identification with only the material world is the cause of much of your suffering. As both the Christian and Islamic traditions teach, our misuse of free will, which we employ purely for materialist things we perceive to be pleasurable, leads to suffering and heartache. In other words, it leads to sin, and indulgence in what is “haram”, or forbidden. Abhay Charanavrinda Bhaktivedanta Swami, a great Hindu scholar and guru writing on this subject, agrees with this understanding:

“Every living entity has an individual soul, his personal individuality and a minute form of independence. By misuse of that independence, one becomes a conditioned soul, and by proper use of independence he is always liberated.”-Bhagavad Gita As It Is, 15.7

I challenge you to take stock of your life and see where your priorities have been. Are you far too concerned with the material? Do you feel yourself always chasing after happiness, fulfillment and peace in material things, positions, experiences of the flesh and mind, or other people? Konko Daijin’s teaching at the outset of this article is a compassionate request for you to be merciful to your true Self, and by extension others, and cease to be the source of your own torment. Recognize that you are more than the desires of your senses, which are often like wild horses, dragging the chariot of your life through dangerous rocky terrain, aimlessly rushing about. Ultimately, the chariot will crash and the charioteer will be injured or die. Only by diligent application of spiritual principles can you discipline the senses and take the reigns of those horses, carefully controlling your pathway. Self realization, or Self knowledge, comes with great responsibility, so be prepared to make significant changes as you begin to explore spiritual truth. In the end, you will be much happier that you did. Be wise and remember always what the Qur’an says regarding a Materialist conception of life.

“The worldly life is no more than the enjoyment of delusion.”-Surah 3:185