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22 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

sounds and cacophonous noises. We are going to taste escapes from unpleasantness, doesn’t it? We can always
pleasant and unpleasant flavors, smell pleasant and distract ourselves with pleasant things—televisions,
unpleasant odors. The body is going to feel pleasure and automobiles, computers. Technology can provide
pain, heat and cold. And our minds are able to think and endless, interesting, and pleasing distractions. But be
remember. We have powerful memories, don’t we? distracted from what? What are we trying to get away
We especially remember anything unpleasant that has from? From boredom, despair, fear, anxiety, and worry.
either happened to us, or that we have done. All this is a
way of saying how sensitive it is to be born as a human When I first practiced meditation, I didn’t have a
form and having to live a lifetime, for however long that teacher. I thought I’d just sit for ten minutes and not
might be. think. I remember sitting in my apartment trying
to do it. And it was utter hell! The more I decided I
We have to bear with whatever happens whether wouldn’t think, the more frantic my thoughts became—
it should be that way or not. Since we aren’t the creators, the restlessness, the boredom. Ten minutes was an
we can’t create a world that is only pleasurable, eternity—eternal hell! I experienced eternal hell the
beautiful, and fulfilling. We have to accept its opposite— first ten minutes I meditated.
the pain, the criticism, the blame, the illness, the ageing
process of the body, separation from loved ones, having Fear haunts humanity, doesn’t it? There is fear and
to be with the unloved, and so forth. anxiety because there is a lot to be frightened of,
actually. I’m not talking about personal neurosis.
Suffering is the First The actual human experience involves being very
Noble Truth. The Buddha vulnerable. We have very vulnerable bodies that can
used this Noble Truth as a be damaged. Wild animals can attack such vulnerable
way of awakening human bodies at any time. We don’t have to worry about that
beings to this experience now. Yet in modern cities the rebirth of wild tigers and
we all have. Whether we bears seems to be taking place in the human form. What
are awakened to it or not, were once called civilized cities—safe and secure—
we still have it. Whether have now become like the jungle—cities like London
we are the most fortunate and New York (I don’t know about Australia). Some
gifted person in the world, of the beings in those places are much more ferocious
or the most wretched, than bears and tigers. So there is a lot to fear—just
we still suffer. The Queen instinctual fear for self-preservation. It’s very natural to
of England suffers! The fear when you realise your life is in danger.
wretched beggar suffers!
Men and women, rich and We have a retentive memory. And because we can
poor, European, Asian, remember, we can also project any situation into the
African—the common experience to all humanity is future, any possibility for pain. This is because we have
suffering. this intelligent mind with the ability to create ideas,
to remember and to believe in the concepts that we
Now suffering is to be understood. This is the First create in the mind. So then we have anxiety. Anxiety is
Noble Truth. And to understand something means a mental state that gnaws away at us—the ever-present
we have to accept it rather than reject it. Rejecting possibility for failure, the ever-present possibility for
suffering is, of course, what we like to do—get rid of it rejection, for being criticized, for being unwanted,
as quickly as possible. Any pain, any depressing feeling, being hurt or damaged. This is possible at any time.
any failure, any unpleasantness, any ugliness—we We recognize this. We can dwell in a continuous state
just like to get rid of it immediately. Life in a modern of anxiety about possible pain and suffering which we
materialistic country provides us with very immediate aren’t actually experiencing in the present. That comes