Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

What is suffering, and why is suffering?

Answer

It is only your mind that suffers. If you are anxious you suffer, but if you disconnect the roots of your anxiety your suffering disappears. Buddha also asked himself that question. The ego suffers for itself; without it there would be no more suffering. That is the suffering that comes of one's consciousness of life, family, desires, the future. That is why Buddhism recommends that people sever their attachments to family, money, society, and so forth. But this applies only on the level of the spirit, not to actual forms of behavior. If you sever your attachment to your family, then you will be able to love your family truly and profoundly, without egotism. What creates profound, true love - love without object and without desire for profit, universal and eternal - is understanding the nature of the ego. Then suffering is pointless. Love and work no longer create suffering; the roots have been cut, "as in the coffin." Inside yourself there will be nothing left; the ego abandoned means true happiness. Outwardly, however, you go on acting, loving, working; - there is no contradiction. That is the normal condition, making possible harmony with others through true inner freedom and true simplicity. Religion means following that inner freedom and not some morality or other. True religion means harmonizing with what is outside, with society, with everything around us. That is the right place for the bodhisattva, the monk. Doing away with suffering is the problem of all religions; it is their source and the source of all spiritual life. Death is the greatest suffering. That is why we need a spiritual life.