On Suffering

Here is the text of a talk I gave today at an Interdenomiational Prayer Service, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS:

Hello. My name is Christina Hauck. I’m a dharma teacher in the Kwan Um School of Zen. I would like to share my perspective as a Buddhist on the terrible tragedy we have gathered to mourn.

The Buddha taught that suffering is a fundamental fact of existence. Every sentient being suffers, even animals. What makes human beings special is that we can understand our suffering has a cause and a cure. The cause of our suffering, as human beings, is our emotions, especially the emotions of desire, anger, and hatred. The Buddha taught that if we want to be cured, if we want to be liberated from our suffering, then we have to understand our own emotions. This is the purpose of meditation practice, to look deeply into our own minds and to see our own emotions. When we do this we discover, as the Buddha himself discovered, that our emotions are impermanent. They arise and pass away. They are like clouds that form in the sky. Sometimes the clouds are very big, and they mass together, and great storms occur. But those clouds always eventually dissolve and the blue sky re-appears. The Buddhists say that the blue sky is like our original mind, our mind before it is clouded by emotion. The goal of meditation is to watch our emotions closely until we see that they have no more substance than the thinnest wisp of a single cloud in the Kansas sky. When that happens, when our Original Mind, our Big Sky Mind appears, then we begin to see the suffering that is all around us, all the time. We begin to feel compassion for those who are suffering, and we begin to find ways to help them.

What happened in Virginia four days ago is that a human being whose mind was deeply clouded with anger and hatred lashed out and hurt a lot of people. I think we all understand that he hurt more than the thirty-three people he killed and the thirty people he injured. He hurt their friends and families. He hurt people far far away, people as far away as Kansas and Korea. So today we have set aside this time to acknowledge our interconnectedness. We can see so clearly how when one person is suffering, the whole world suffers as well.

Today, I am very very sad. I know that you are, too. As a Buddhist, I understand that my sadness will pass. But everyday it seems, the news gives me fresh opportunity to experience this sadness, sadness for those whose anger leads then to violence, sadness for their victims, sadness for the friends and families, sadness for us all. I believe that my job as a human being is to use this sadness to help others. So today I say, if you are deeply angry, please reach out to somebody who can help you. Please don’t let that anger overwhelm you and explode. If you are deeply afraid or deeply sad, please, reach out. You do not have to drown in your fear or your sadness. You are not alone. And if you see someone whose suffering, whose anger or sadness or fear appears to be completely overwhelming, please reach out them. Please don’t leave them alone.

Thank you.