What is the source of our suffering? Where does our anger fear and sadness come from? and most importantly, what can we do about it?
The roots of mindfulness lie in Buddhism, and Right View is one of the eightfold noble path that form the framework that mindfulness comes from. Right View is simply setting the intention to see the world as it really is, the understanding of things as they are.
This links back to what we’d started to talk about in the last few weeks - starting to become aware of the model of the world we have in our heads that we filter reality through, our assumptions, beliefs and labels.
Thich Nhat Hanh summarises Right View in this way: “Touching reality deeply -- knowing what is going on inside and outside of ourselves -- is the way to liberate ourselves from the suffering that is caused by wrong perceptions. Right View is not an ideology, a system, or even a path. It is the insight we have into the reality of life, a living insight that fills us with understanding, peace, and love.”
That suffering he talks about includes the damage that holding onto difficult emotions like fear, anger and sadness can do. One of the reasons why the mindfulness training of not reacting when you feel anger is so important (and personal to me) is because most of the time when I’ve felt anger I’ve found out afterwards that I didn’t really understand the situation (I might have assumed a motivation of someone that wasn’t true) or didn’t understand something about myself (I’m feeling stressed or tired). So cultivating that insight that TNH was talking about can help us to live a calmer, happier life.
So the exam question is - how do you cultivate right view, seeing the world as it really is? The first is to build your mindfulness practice - a little every day. The more stressed you are, the more it warps your view of the world, the calmer we are the more likely we can look deeply and see things as they are, just like the surface of a lake reflecting the sky.
The second is staying with your difficult emotions rather than avoiding them. You can do this in a couple of ways - you can sit down to meditate and concrete on your mind and feelings - what thoughts are arising. Looking at those thoughts, examining each one and seeing if its true or an assumption. Giving yourself permission to feel what you’re feeling, not feeling guilty about being angry. Looking deeply into the roots of what you’re feeling in the past with compassion and understanding rather than regret. You can also achieve this by talking it through with someone you trust who won’t judge what you’re feeling.
Its also important to be aware of what we consume - I won’t go on another rant about social media but the algorithm is design to hold attention and fear and anger are the most effective ways of doing that. Anything you consume that drives fear and anger will warp your view of the world.
Something I’ve started doing recently which I find is effective is accepting that I can’t perceive the full true that's happening. So when something happens and I feel anger, I can say to myself that I feel anger or fear because I’m not seeing the whole picture. An example of this is I can’t see the life that someone has lived and the experiences that they’ve had that led to them making their choices.
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