Gain and Loss

Tonight I stumbled upon a quite remarkable sutta over at accesstoinsight. It is titled the lokavipatti sutta, the discourse on the Failings of the World. To be honest, I was searching for something – ostensibly inspirational – about failure. Something like, “‘always fall upward,’ says the Buddha.” Or, “don’t worry, be happy.”

You see, I had a good talk with a friend last summer. He was and is by most any account a very successful man: excellent education, great job, intelligence, good looks, humor, confidence, the works. Yet at one point in the conversation he told me that his greatest fear in life is failure, plain and simple. That conversation has stuck with me for some reason, and whenever I think of failure, I think back on that day, seeing his eyes.

Recently, a good friend of mine has been suffering. Our mutual friend reminded her of how much she had, such wonderful things that others miss out on in life for one reason or another. And it’s true, my suffering friend is blessed with much to be thankful for. But I know that doesn’t always help much when the one thing you want you do not have, or the one most wonderful thing in your life slips away. I have had plenty of my own moments of suffering in this way, as I am sure we all have. No matter how much we have, there will always be something more to desire or something cherished will be lost.

So what is the difference between the suffering and the peaceful, the contented ones?

I once sat before a great teacher who said that awakening is absolute normalcy. Nothing changes, except the ‘you’ goes away. The story-maker, the being which suffers, is seen for what it is, just another idea. Once the story-maker is seen, the stories can stop, and great energy is unleashed, or -for those who don’t make many stories anyhow- a little energy is freed up.

The sutta tells us the same thing. How do we know we’re not enlightened? We cling to what is pleasurable, we rebel against suffering, we fail to see each of these as they truly are: “inconstant, stressful, & subject to change.” (the full list is: gain, loss, status, disgrace, censure, praise, pleasure, & pain)

Yet even the enlightened person is subject to gain, loss, status, disgrace, censure, praise, pleasure, & pain. That is right. There is pain, loss, disgrace, and censure even for the enlightened. What’s the difference? They see these, along with the good, as inconstant, stressful, and subject to change. (lucky blankety-blanks.)

But no, I’m sure the next sutta says it’s not just a matter of luck. It’s a matter of on-the-job training, as it were. First figuring all of this stuff out intellectually – maybe memorizing the Pali terms: anicca, anatta, dukkha, then thinking a lot about what they mean, and then, and most importantly, spending the time to bring the meaning of these words into your lived experience. That’s just a fancy way to say: meditate (a lot).

You’ll find that every moment of your life is filled with failure, with gain and loss and all the rest, and so is everyone else’s. If you respond with, “yea, but I…” – go meditate some more. Find a teacher. If you find yourself saying, “yea, but I…” a lot, find a teacher with a stick (they have those in Buddhism. Sweet, huh?). Once you see – not just think about or conceptually know – that life filled with these “worldly conditions that spin the world around” (by ‘spin’ think kid with bat and blindfold under a piñata – that’s us), then you’ll get it.

The sutta concludes, in poetic form (perhaps something to meditate on):

 Gain/loss,
 status/disgrace,
 censure/praise,
 pleasure/pain:
these conditions among human beings
are inconstant,
 impermanent,
 subject to change.

Knowing this, the wise person, mindful,
ponders these changing conditions.
Desirable things  don't charm the mind,
undesirable ones  bring no resistance.

His welcoming
& rebelling  are scattered,
 gone to their end,
 do not exist.
Knowing the dustless, sorrowless state,
he  discerns rightly,
 has gone, beyond becoming, 
       to the Further Shore.