Since their first encounter with Buddhist philosophy two centuries ago, Western thinkers have wondered at Buddhism’s uniqueness and struggled to define it. Is Buddhism a religion, albeit one without God? Is it a philosophy, an ethical system, a psychology, a way of living? This is the conundrum of the great nontheistic religion. We in the West struggle with it to this day.
Buddhism’s very mystery and variety allow us to read into it what we want. For many in the West, Buddhism is synonymous with peace, love, and the universal religion of human kindness advocated and exemplified by the Dalai Lama. Some Westerners are drawn to the rigor, depth, and artistic associations of Zen, while those with a more mystical bent may be attracted to the colorful and esoteric Vajrayana tradition, with its elaborate rituals and sophisticated tantric practices. Westerners who like their religion practical and humanistic may be drawn to the early teachings of the Pali canon, from which they can derive a kind of liberal Buddhism marked by ethics, rationality, nonhierarcy, and individualism. Still others see Buddhism as a great science of mind, the ultimate partner to Western psychology and neuroscience, or as a philosophy of interdependence that can guide humanity through its environmental crisis.
There is truth in all these views, yet none strikes at the heart of the question we have been asking ourselves for two hundred years: What is it that makes Buddhism unique among the world’s great religions?
For me, it is the Dalai Lama who has answered this question best. In A Profound Mind (Harmony Books, 2011), His Holiness makes a clear, profound statement that encapsulates Buddhism’s unique view of the human condition. “The suffering and happiness each of us experiences,” His Holiness writes, “is a reflection of the distortion or clarity with which we view ourselves and the world.”
Buddhism is famed for the four noble truths that lay out its foundational logic. They are: suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path. Surely all religions and philosophies are born of the need to address the unsatisfactoriness of human life. It is Buddhism’s analysis of the cause of and solution to suffering that makes it stand alone. This analysis is what the Dalai Lama has summarized in a single, precise sentence.
We experience suffering, he is telling us, because we don’t understand. Our view of reality is distorted and inaccurate. We are simply mistaken, not sinful or flawed. We are, in a word, ignorant. We think that we and the world we experience are solid, continuous, and permanent, and we cause ourselves and others unending pain in our futile effort to maintain that illusion. Ignorance is the cause of suffering: this is the second noble truth, Buddhism’s unique diagnosis of the human condition.
Therefore, the Dalai Lama continues, we experience happiness—the cessation of suffering—when we understand with clarity the true nature of ourselves and our world. No longer attached to realities that are at best momentary, we do not experience fear. We do not generate the three poisons of like, dislike, and indifference. We are not selfish. We are, in a word, wise. Our hearts are open, our minds are clear, and we benefit ourselves and others. Seeing reality clearly is the cause of the cessation of suffering: this is the third noble truth, Buddhism’s unique remedy for the human condition.
This brings us to the fourth noble truth, the path, and to this book, the 2012 edition of The Best Buddhist Writing. The fourth noble truth breaks the path down into eight parts. Six involve leading an ethical and virtuous life, and in this Buddhism concurs with the other major religions. The remaining two—wisdom and meditation—reflect Buddhism’s insight that the real problem is in the mind, and only there can we solve it. This is a more practical and far-reaching truth than we could ever imagine.
This collection reflects the sincere and dedicated efforts of Buddhist writers, practitioners, and teachers to follow this path. They show us how our lives, our relationships, and even our society can be transformed when we are willing to work in a deep and heartfelt way with our own mind, heart, and sense of being.
It is often the personal stories in The Best Buddhist Writing that inspire me the most. They usually involve difficult circumstances, because that is when we look deepest into ourselves, when the realities of life become clearest, and when we realize how much the important truths of Buddhism can help us.
In these stories, we learn from people like us who are facing the same struggles we do. The Shambhala Sun’s Andrea Miller, with the help of the great Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, sees clearly and heals both her family’s suffering and her own. The celebrated writer Diane Ackerman, living with her beloved husband’s Alzheimer’s disease, discovers that joy is always possible when we don’t try to hold onto what can’t be held. A young woman named Callie Bates faces a cancer diagnosis with the help of a loving family and a purple wig.
In all these stories, we see that experiencing life with clarity and courage is always beneficial—for ourselves and others. That’s not easy to do, though, and so it helps us to have teachers and techniques. Buddhism is renowned for both, and this year’s edition of The Best Buddhist Writing contains teachings that are both profound and practical.
Sharon Salzberg surveys the many benefits of meditation and offers us helpful instruction on how to get our practice started. Pema Chödrön is renowned for teachings that strike right at the heart of our lives. Her instruction to us is: Smile at fear. This edition also features a number of excellent teachings from the Zen tradition, from the shining clarity of the Japanese Zen master Shodo Harada Roshi to the thoughtful contemplations of contemporary Western teachers such as John Tarrant, Joan Sutherland, Melissa Myozen Blacker, and Norman Fischer. Since the true nature of reality is beyond all thought and concept, Zen teachings like these point us toward the inexpressible. As this volume demonstrates, American Zen is strong.
Other teachings offer us concrete help for working with the daily challenges of modern life. Anger—our own and others’—is one of the most difficult, and Zen teacher Nancy Baker helps us see past the suffering anger causes to the powerful and useful energy behind it. Lin Jensen looks at the subtleties of the ethical life in his thoughtful essay on “Right Lying,” and Thich Nhat Hanh offers his guidance for loving relationships in his teaching “Fidelity.”
As always, Vajrayana masters combine a vast and deep view with powerful meditation techniques, such as Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s presentation on stillness, silence, and spaciousness. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche teaches us how to relax naturally into the true nature of mind. Barry Boyce surveys the life and teachings of the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In a tradition that centers on the teacher as the embodiment of the Buddha, the example of his extraordinary and historic journey is one of the best teachings of all.
Buddhists who are dedicated to the welfare of others must devote themselves not just to spiritual questions but to political issues, for so much of the world’s suffering takes place on a large scale: war, environmental destruction, racism, sexism, and social and economic injustice. We often think of problems like these as reflections of solid, external realities. Yet even here it is attitudes, views, and perceptions that make the real difference. Effective change begins with change in the mind.
Here some of Buddhism’s most astute thinkers address the problems facing the world in a century that has not started well. Michael Stone and David Loy ponder the basic questions of fairness and power raised by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi analyses global problems through the lens of traditional Buddhist teachings, and Bruce Rich points us toward the works of King Ashoka, the Buddhist monarch who gives us an early model of enlightened government.
Finally, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with whom we began this Introduction, lays out the one feasible ground for global transformation—a universal ethic of kindness, one that unites rather than divides us and brings out the best in human nature. From that first dot of clarity can come an entire enlightened society. This is Buddhism’s uniqueness, power, and gift to us. May we accept it.
This is the ninth annual edition of The Best Buddhist Writing. I would like to thank Beth Frankl and all those at Shambhala Publications with whom I work, including former president Peter Turner, who conceived of this series and invited me to be its editor. I would like to express my deep appreciation for my colleagues at the Shambhala Sun Foundation, who show how much a caring community grounded in the dharma can mean. Finally, I would like to express my love and thanks to my wife, Pam Rubin, and our daughter, Pearl. It is in our lives together as a family that I try to make my practice of Buddhism real.
Melvin McLeod
Editor-in-chief
The Shambhala Sun
Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly