A monk taught me less than a month ago that Buddha, the awakened one, wasn't any more mystical than a human being brought back into the shape of how a human being is supposed to be. Back to the way nature created him, free from the conditioning and identification of the mind, that is the root cause to all suffering in this modern age.The only way to comprehend what this means is through self-study and inner/outer reflection, but let's give a little heads up what to expect.
Everything in our world is impermanent, in other words, nothing is forever lasting as we know it. (There may be an essence or a spirit that is living eternal, but it's too early to jump to that conclusion as everyone needs to be ready to pass through death to really know. The premature belief in a forever living spirit can act as a means to avoid confronting the fear of death) You and me will die, the sturdiest of mountains will in time crumble to dust and sink into the oceans. If you think that is depressing, think again, because really it's great news! As the world around us is in a constant motion of change or impermanence(Anicca), suffering (Dukkha) can never really last for long, that means that whatever is torturing your mind now will pass, so why suffer in the first place. When the concept of impermanence is understood on all levels of being, one starts to lose attachments to the outcome of events as it all merely IS. Clinging to something that is ever changing is an act of ignorance in the first place, as it's subject to change sooner or later and will eventually result in suffering. When there is a judgement of "good" or "bad" as an outcome or as a result of an event, the result will be either happiness or suffering, when there is no attachment to the outcome, there will be no emotional response. The root cause is that our minds get exited by dreaming or projecting a certain outcome of a situation into the future, call it ambition, planning or becoming. This way we create our own dramas and are curiously enough controlled by them as one overlaps the other and creates our so-called day to day life. This is in fact the whole secret, to let go of all attachments and fully comprehend the impermanence of everything. As the people of Zen says: "This too shall pass". Don't worry, you will still be able to feel like a human being, I would state on even a grander scale than before.
When there is no "I" or "self"(Anatta) there can't be any suffering. I can hear your mind complaining already, "what the hell is he talking about, I am here reading this bullshit, am I not?!" Well, that is exactly the point, this is a tough one, for "me" a tougher one than impermanence, although very close related as the "I" or "me" is also very much impermanent. In fact there are so many "I's" and "me's" in there that we all could have a big party, all of them fighting to be the next "One" in charge. An example can be that you promise yourself to do something good for yourself the following morning, like morning gymnastics or meditation, when the next day arises you totally forget about it, why? Because there is a different version of "me" waking up the next morning, with a different plan for the day. When we remember that we broke the promise to ourselves, we suffer by judging ourselves for having bad integrity, when this is so far from the truth as it can get. The fact that we are judging ourselves is in itself a proof that there is no single identity in humans, if it was who is then the person judging the other? That sounds like at least two to me. If that isn't enough here is one easy knockout question to everybody that is still resisting the truth; have anybody ever asked you the question "who are you?" and do you find it easy or hard to answer this question? what do you answer? Do you answer what you have done up to now in your life, or do you start to sum of your values? Both are wrong as they are based on previous observations and has no place in the present moment, where the question asked is: "Who are you?" and not "Who were you?" Continue to ask yourself this question and practice on people around you, please let me know if you can ever find one permanent identity that can be counted on to be solid.
