Chan (Chinese Zen) Master Sheng-Yen wrote a book called There is No Suffering. It offers excellent insight into Buddhist philosophy, which I enjoy. The book takes its title from The Heart Sutra, a teaching that is central to Buddhism. There is no bible equivalent in Buddhism, but this is the probably the closest thing. One day I will transcribe it because it has an amazing ancient poetic style.
I digress.
The point of The Heart Sutra is to show that suffering is an illusion and when we integrate this idea into our lives we attain enlightenment. Basically, it is saying that life is full of a bunch of things that have no meaning and we attach negative meaning to them, which makes us suffer.
I know some things that are illusions:
There is no suffering and no end of suffering,
There is no surfing and no end of surfing,
There is no right path and no wrong path.
There are no paths and there is no box.
There is no school,
No right and no wrong,
No debit, credit, or credit card debt.
There is no physical pain and no mental pain.
There are no waves and no no waves.
There are certainly no rights and no lefts.
No points or reefs, no beachbreaks.
There are no friends and no enemies,
No deep conversations
Or ephemeral lust.
I have reason to doubt the existence of Australia,
Argentina, Algeria, Austria and Albania,
And I know there is no France.
Life does not exist and does not end.
Birth exists now and now and now
And thus does not exist.
There is no mind
No thoughts and no surviving ego.
There is no present
But there is really no past or future.
I will not grow old or grow young.
None of us exist now and
We will all one day cease to exist.
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