In deep sorrow lies the doorway to bliss.
It is cruel to ask but have you parted from or lost someone whom you loved deeply? In this separation one encounters a deep sorrow. A sorrow that shakes the very root of your being. The loss is not the loss of a person alone; it is also the loss of meaning in life that his/her presence brought in. Therefore one wants to either end one’s own life too or begin to enquire into the deeper truths of being, living and existing. The deeper we delve, the greater the mysteries of life we unravel. This journey to seek and fathom answers is neither easy nor inevitable. One can feel the sorrow of loss only superficially, as most of us do, and move on into the commotion of life. For most of us the pain may be only skin deep. It hardly even touches our psyche, let alone the being. Which is why most of us lead a ‘well adjusted’ life of normalcy. Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalyst states that we use ‘Defence Mechanisms’ of various sorts to be able to cope with anxiety and emotional disturbance. Defence mechanisms are human’s face-saving devices. So also I believe we defend our being, our deeper mind from sorrow and thus evade as far as possible disturbing investigations and unconventional action.
A deep sorrow surfaces with either the loss of a loved one, loss of wealth or a near death experience or watching the ruthlessness of a calamity etc. If one is left alone with this sorrow, one is compelled to enquire into the deeper questions of life, of death, of meaning and the worthiness of pursuing various goals in life. In sorrow if one does not complain and rather endures it completely and watches it carefully, one sees for oneself the worthlessness of pursuits of pleasure in life. Ironically it isn’t necessary that the outcome of this perception is abandonment of action. But certainly the result is the renunciation of the expectation from world.
The idea is not to glorify sorrow and therefore make oneself sorrowful but rather to see the futility of human pursuit through sorrow. Sorrow is the doorway. It is the dark night before the new dawn. In a way there was no need for Buddha to mention the succeeding three truths after he mentioned the first of the Four Noble Truths. The four noble truths being -the truth of dukkha, the truth of origin of dukkha, the truth of cessation of dukkha and the truth of the path leading to the cessation of dukkha.
The first noble truth that ‘suffering exists’ is sufficient enough, if felt intensely, to discover the subsequent three for one’s own self.
In deep sorrow, there is a germ of new possibilities. When one realizes the essential truth of life namely that suffering exits, one stops wandering in pursuit of happiness. One understands that happiness and misery are transient states and to pursue the former and avoid the later is futile. One eventually takes all events -happiness and misery, health and disease, youth and old age, wealth and poverty as momentary and raises oneself above them. One understands that sorrow lies in being attached to either of the opposites and the ideal way is to watch them and let them pass. This attitude of deep pessimism towards human accomplishments and endeavors opens up new possibilities which were hitherto beyond comprehension.
These possibilities could manifest in a seeker in different ways. One possibility is that such a person becomes naturally selfless. Having lost much of his/her interest in gathering or hoarding material gain s/he easily gives his/her time and energy to whoever needs it the most. Another possibility is that such a person grows to be extremely fluid and multifaceted. It is only the desire to gain something that makes us stubborn. Ending that desire/he becomes flexible which helps him/her to explore more, know more and learn more. She/he does not chase more but the ‘more’ becomes available to him/her. The third possibility is that she/he becomes extremely joyous, blissful. Without loss or gain, she/he lives joyously irrespective of life events. Bliss becomes his/her fragrance. Lastly she/he could transform into a compassionate Buddha.
Compassion of a Buddha is a blessing to the deserving and the undeserving alike that each may attain bliss and enlightenment. A Buddha is apparently passive but in deep passivity, there is an undercurrent of dynamism. This compassion has its own action and a Buddha has no necessity to act (outwardly). Buddha’s compassion itself is his/her action. It is passive but dynamic. His/her compassion is causeless and unattached. And yet it is dynamic because it does affect the receiver. The receiver in turn starts moving deeper towards the state of enlightenment.It is a matter of depth. Depth alone reveals the mysteries. In depth alone, we grow further.
Nilesh P Megnani is a professor of philosophy who teaches not just the academics of his subject but the purpose of it to his students. He writes whenever he feel inspired and believes life is workable hypothesis and love, the elusive potion that might transform humanity Connect with on neelvijayalaxmi@gmail.com