Good morning! I’d like to extend my deepest apologies for starving you all on Thursday and Friday last week. Chef Ricky had some business to attend to, but now we’re back and ready to start this week off with thought bellies so full you'll have to loosen your cerebral belt a notch.

In order to live up to my promise, I will be continuing last week’s thought menu into today and tomorrow. For our main course this morning, we’re going to talk about one of the central themes across all religions and philosophies; the reality of suffering and redemption. On the side, we’ll see it tangibly through the Paradox of Hedonism. And to help us digest, we’re going to be taking another passage from our favorite Thich Nhat Hanh’s Going Home. I know you’ve been starved of thought breakfast for too long. Take your seats, because thought breakfast is served.

As a refresher for any newcomers, we are expanding on last week’s theme where we’re bridging the East and the West, in terms of thought, by considering certain truths from Christianity and Buddhism.

On this subject, we look to the very essence of each religion/philosophy (and many others, I might add). That very essence, the foundational idea from which this all starts; to live is to suffer. It sounds gloomy, but Christianity and Buddhism share in common what they do with this idea; that rather than living in despair because of it, realize we can use it to transform, grow, and end suffering. We will start of with the most principle teaching of our Eastern Teacher.

The First Noble Truth in Buddhism is put extremely bluntly:
"There is suffering.” First, we should think about what the First Noble Truth is not saying. It is not “we suffer” or “I suffer” or even “they suffer.” Suffering exists, suffering happens, but our suffering is not really ours. It is something that exists outside of us and enters through our experiences. That “experience” or cause of suffering can be many things, but the Buddha and his followers boiled it down to one thing, attachment. Our craving for permanence in an impermanent world.

Buddha says in the Visuddhimagga, “Suffering is, but none who suffer; the deed there is, but no doer thereof.” So basically, when we let go of that craving, that attachment, that yearning for permanence… the grip that suffering holds on us begins to loosen. Enlightenment, or nirvana as Buddha would say, is not an escape from pain and suffering, but rather the ending of our resistance to it.

Christianity’s core idea is not much different at all. Jesus Christ was a human. People tend to forget in His Godliness that Christ did in fact suffer, and more so than many people. Christ did not come down from heaven to observe what humanity was experiencing, but to experience it just as well. Moreover, Christ came in order to show the transformation that taking our suffering head on can make. That transformation is of pain into redemption through love.

Jesus says in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Essentially, one of Christ’s most important teachings was through His actions, not His words. Jesus showed us that suffering becomes the arena where love can prove itself real. God does not desire pain or for us to experience pain, but rather shows us that pain is where His divine love meets human vulnerability. In the crucifixion of Christ, the suffering is vivid, profound, and still remembered over 2000 years later. In the resurrection of Christ, suffering is transformed into love. You’ll often hear “Jesus died for us.” This means that the suffering and death that Jesus experienced was an act of love; self-giving love, which healed a broken relationship between God and humanity.

Jesus and Buddha come at this concept of suffering from opposite directions; one through surrender, and one through detachment. However, they meet at the same place, which is freedom through acceptance. For Christ, entering suffering head-on shows that love is stronger than pain and demise. for Buddha, it is understanding suffering that dissolves the illusion of itself entirely, and thus arises love and compassion. Both of them warn us to reject any avoidance of suffering. Both of them encourage us to sit with it until it turns into love.

So suffering isn’t the opposite of peace, but rather the classrom where peace is learned. And we are all the students.

“Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness.” - John Stuart Mill

The more directly you seek pleasure, the less you’ll acutally get. To bring back one of last week’s analogies, it’s like trying to bite your own teeth.

If you only live to be happy, you will never stop asking yourself “Am I happy yet?” And, as we just covered, the answer will almost always be no. The simple vibe that the question brings is enough to ruin all the fun. However, when you drop this idea, and lose yourself in love and compassion, you will experience pleasure without looking for it in the first place.

Although this concept is in fact paradoxical in nature. Surely, when you look for something long enough, logically speaking you should find it. Maybe this paradox does have an answer, though. Maybe “pleasure” or “happiness” or “joy” or whatever it is doesn’t come from pursuit but rather from participation. Simply put, our happiest moments are the ones where we forget to ask if we’re happy.

In Thich Nhat Hanh’s (Thây’s) Going Home, he goes over the really important concept of faith. Thây says that faith is a living thing and “The food that helps it to grow is the continued discoveries, the deeper understanding of reality.”

I have been told by many leaders in the Catholic Church (priests, monks, etc.) that inquiry is not discouraged in catholicism but rather encouraged. Many would think that a belief system such as this would warrant a surrender of inquiry to one worldview, but it does not. In fact, the prime example of this is Father Georges Lemaître, the man who theorized the Big Bang. And yes, the story of creation adopted by most atheists (people who don’t believe in God) was actually theorized by a Catholic priest.

However, this is a Buddhist Zen Master delivering this lesson. Continued discoveries, leading to a deeper understanding of reality, are necessary for true and correct faith. Without affirmation, faith merely becomes subscription. Thây likens faith to a ladder. In order to ascend on a ladder, you have to abandon the lowest step beneath you. That is how faith is renewed and kept true. None of us know the highest truths of the world, so our understanding of the world around us should always be shifting, changing as we learn and grow.

So walk through your day with this in mind. Are you still on the same step you were a year ago? Maybe even ten years ago? Today’s Thought Breakfast is quite a bit to digest (literally). If there’s anything from here that you can munch on for the rest of the day, let it be to accept the suffering that life throws at you today. Don’t hide from discomfort, but experience it as a feeling of life comes with the package of existence.

You ought to thank your friend/colleague/parent/forwarder because they’ve blessed your inbox with something special. Every day we will upload more thought-provoking content that will ignite your day with a sense of mindfulness and thoughtfulness.

Remember to stay mindful, smell the flowers, and take it easy.

Chef Ricky - Thought Breakfast

P.S.

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