Hi Nothing. (from nothing comes all things)

You ask some really good questions.

“All I teach is suffering and the end of suffering.” – “Life is suffering” – yet the Buddha was not arguing for the end of life or, in my opinion, the disengagement from Life though for some that is a path. (most of us are not called to be monks or hermits but to engage with life)

In general: We see life as we are (karma) not as it is.  As we become more conscious – “enlightened” – the opposites fade and we experience Life as it is, which is as we are. Life is a wonder; we are a wonder which includes suffering. We say Yes to life and engage fully with it, Joyful suffering… Have you noticed that the experiences that becomes deeply meaningfully because they are bitter sweet.  The experience of pain and suffering transformed…. Which yes, raises many more questions.

I am not a Buddhist so the following may be off the mark but maybe it will help.

The purpose of the various practice of Buddhism is greater awareness. Consciousness arises from the tension we experience when confronted with opposites.   We don’t become conscious of the experience of cold without having the experience of hot.

Perhaps the first confrontation we all experience is the knowledge of good and evil which is different from knowledge of what is good and what is evil. Knowledge “of” is not the same as knowing “what is” so we suffer. What I experience as good one minute is in the next experienced as bad. What I experience as good you might experience as bad. How can that be? How can one thing be at the same time both? Not Two?

We “awaken” to the problem of opposites, becoming conscious through struggle. In general, we experience struggle as suffering so you might say that the price of consciousness is suffering or, the price of life is suffering.

When we look to nature, we become conscious of the fact that Life lives off Life.  Life requires the sacrifice of Life.  Our life comes at the cost of life and the tendency is to repress that truth = we suffer. I would argue that the question behind all religions is in my opinion how are we to respond that truth. Yes, No, or We can Fix it. Interestingly most religions can be interpreted in any of these ways.

If we answer No, that Life should not be, get me off this ride. We dissolve the ego, no ego no suffering because there is nothing that can be touched. Begs the question, what is the ego and what role does it play in consciousness? Many interpret the goal of Buddhism this way.

If we answer life was good, but we broke it so must fix it. Well, I suspect you know that just creates allot of suffering although it’s a good way to experience suffering as meaning and purpose.

If we answer Yes, we enter into the flow or life as it is, that we are one, intimately part of Life, its wonder and suffering. We Suffer however our relationship to suffering changes and becomes not suffering.

I would argue that the Buddha, as was Christ, were showing the path to say Yes to Life As It Is. Each moment of life a moment of “birth – death – resurrection/reincarnation” – not opposites but intimately connected and interwoven that we are to enter into freely.

Which brings us back to the problem of opposites, suffering, consciousness and ‘enlightenment’.  As we awaken, we realize that opposites are illusions of our own making. Not that the experiences aren’t real but that they aren’t separate, aren’t opposites. Good and Bad exist together as one, as the All is one. Joy and suffering are not opposites but are one as the All is one. This is a different kind of consciousness and being.

• Objective consciousness:  Object and Subject or separate. This is our relationship to the outer world where “real” equals those things we experience through our 5 senses.
• Subjective consciousness: Object and Subject or separate. This is our relationship to the inner world, how we feel and think about what our senses reveal to us.
• “Dream” consciousness: Both Object and Subject arise from the self.  You are both Object and Subject. The division between Object and Subject disappear. Object and Subject no longer opposites.
• Consciousness enveloped by unconscious: conscious of the unconscious…. Add silence and you have the sound of “one hand clapping” the sound of the Universe, the sound of Life, ‘Oum’.

So, what am I saying?

As we engage in the practice we will eventually be confronted with the problem of opposites. As we practice, contemplate and meditate and allow the levels of consciousness to arise (cycle) the opposites of object and subject merge and the experience of opposites dissolves. As the opposites dissolves the questions of good and evil, joy and suffering dissolve and so our relationship to Life and relation to ego transforms to something that is transparent to the transcendent . In other words, beyond the limitation of words. We return to where we started but see it for the first time.