MATH

I recently learned an equation that has been really helpful in maintaining a state of joy throughout the shift we're experiencing as global citizens.

pain + resistance = suffering.

As someone living in the Buddhist tradition (even if it's my own take on the matter), suffering is a key point in the philosophy of life. As The Buddha famously said, "Life is suffering." But The First Noble Truth is not meant to advertise hopelessness. A different english translation might be "You should expect to experience suffering in repeated spells until you learn to do the things that reduce or eventually remove it from your life."

And while we will probably always argue what those things are, there is one part of the equation above that lays it out perfectly for us. My translation of The First Noble Truth might also be said, "You should expect to experience pain in your life, but by accepting that pain is part of life, you do not need to suffer." In even more distilled words, acceptance of pain as a reality allows us to drop our resistance to it. And when we stop resisting, we suffer far less. Maybe, if we're well-trained in the arts of life, we stop suffering altogether. And that's "heaven" or "nirvana" or whatever your tradition calls it when you finally "get there".

I like the way the philosopher Baruch Spinoza framed this. He proposed that a human could make themselves a sort of god by mastering acceptance and increasing knowledge. His take was that we fail to see the repeated pain of life as an unavoidable condition of being alive. And, when life throws us unavoidable conditions, we have a simple choice: accept the reality of what is, or resist the reality and live in delusion. Give me acceptance of life's pains over delusion, please.

I have tried to start cultivating joy through the practice of acceptance, and I have seen immediate results. I'm blessed, but I have had my share of heartbreak over the last handful of years. I strained and fought against it and -- as a result -- I remained miserable. It was when I accepted that the pain was part of life that I began to move the suffering out of the way.

But there is a second equation I want to explore as well.

When I was a young man learning everything he could about Buddhism, I relied heavily on The Dalai Lama as source of inspiration and wisdom. One of his most popular quotes is, "Do everything you can to help others, and if you can do nothing to help them -- well, then do them no harm." For most of my life I mistook this quote to be the heart of altruism. But altruism -- the assertion that we must do everything we can to help one another -- is only half of it.

Last week I was doing some reading for grad school and came across the term nonmaleficence. And, for the first time, it occurred to me (probably because of the context) that the word is not synonymous with altruism. In looking it up, I discoverd that nonmaleficence is actually the second part of The Dalai Lama's famous quote. It means to live with the intention of doing no harm.

So I'm offering a second equation:

Altruistic action = Nonmaleficient action

In other words, the two (when used as a moral code) must be balanced* in our behavior. I truly believe that this is a version of love in action, and is going to produce the outcome that we call "joy".

I've developed my own take on the Heart Sutra with these formulas in mind. Please feel free to recite the mantra if you like. I did a practice using this technique this morning:

silent inhale

on exhale: I am.

silent inhale

on exhale: I accept.

silent inhale

on exhale: I do good.

silent inhale

on exhale: I do no harm.

Repeating that practice helps me remember these two mindsets throughout the moments in my life. I hope that you might find it brings you a little peace, as well.

*Balance is one of the founding tenets of JOY FARM.