Dukha: A Sure Road To Hell

According to my understanding, Buddhism teaches that all suffering stems from our craving for pleasure. This causes an attachment to the unreal self; or tamba, that prevents us from being able to perceive what is real (i.e. nothingness, or nirvana).

Buddhist's tell us of the eight fold-path that helps us break away from tamba, and achieve enlightenment (i.e. direct awareness of nirvana). This path seems to essentially consist of denying oneself pleasure, much like the Chistian path of virtue. But, like the Christian path, I think the eight-fold path is often misunderstood and incorrectly followed.

The idea, as I see it, is not to deprive ourselves of pleasure, but rather to disconnect ourselves from it. Indeed, it may be useful to deny ourselves our every desire, but only as a tool for helping us recognize desire, and pleasure, for what it is, dukha. Dukha is the life of suffering that attachment to the unreal causes. But it is not necessary and in fact can be very harmful to deny ourselves pleasurable experiences if we only do so with the aim of enlightenment or salvation. To seek enlightenment for its own sake is a deceptive form of seeking pleasure. And hence, seeking salvation (in the Christian sense) is a sure road to hell, and only ends up leading to more suffering.

The idea of Buddhism, and Christianity when correctly understood, is fundamentally about balance; balance between desire and apathy, between that that is, and that that is not. It is a matter of seeking without effort, which is not something the intellectual mind can ever accomplish, though it can certainly interfere.

So, the idea of meditation, and/or prayer, is not to control our minds, or desires. But, it is to surrender control instead. And attempting to deny ourselves every pleasure, and suppress every desire, only ends up being another form of control that will lead to more dukha, and straight to hell.

(PS: Surrendering control over desire is not the same as surrendering TO desire - so be careful to make this important distinction.)