In addition to educating our readers about Buddhist concepts buried in the sands of time, this series of Dhamma articles aims to correct misconceptions. Our readers would have noticed that presenting a somewhat unconventional viewpoint that intrigues the intelligent reader to consider a “new truth” has been an underlying theme of this series. This is what the Buddha did over His forty-five years of service. He presented to the world a new truth, which all sentient beings fortunate enough to hear from Him or His noble disciples would realise and free themselves from suffering. Although following in the footsteps of the Fully Awakened One feels an unfathomably enormous challenge, the sheer scale of this undertaking instils a sense of humble pride as we embark on a journey we have never been on before. Our mission is to save worldly beings from the clutches of the Mara and the jaws of suffering. As most readers might have realised through this series of Dhamma articles, we are gearing ourselves towards the ultimate battle against ourselves. If salvation is one’s life ambition, this is the only battle that matters during this war. We hope you pick up the ammunition we have been handing out weekly and making steady progress. Soldier on, and success will surely come to those who strive diligently!

Misconceptions 

A common misconception among most so-called Sri Lankan Buddhists is that the Buddha recommends indulging in everything as long as they are in moderation. In our society, it is expected that some people use this false theory to exploit non-drinkers and reluctant drinkers (who might have one or two sips to escape the scrutiny of the mob of regular consumers of ethanol). If you are an oddball who belongs to either one of the categories above, those regular consumers and self-proclaimed wise men, who might even come across as connoisseurs of all alcoholic brands, would say, “Let me impart some wisdom that has come directly from the Buddha Himself. Did you know that He did not forbid alcohol, but neither did He condone overindulgence? Instead, His advice was to use it in moderation. So, why not have a couple of drinks with us? Enjoy the night. Live a little!” Later in the article, I will explain how the misinterpretation of this Buddhist concept may have misled many people over many generations.

Humans with untrained minds have desires and are constantly subjected to urges. When we get a craving or a desire for something and give into temptation, Buddha has named this kāma sukhallikānuyoga. On the flip side, when you get an urge or a desire or a wanting for something, if you resist temptation by merely suppressing it or assume that temptations can be extinguished by subjecting the body to torture, Buddha aptly named this practice atta kilamathānuyoga. It is incorrect to think one needs to experience either sensual indulgence or harsh suffering to understand what the Buddha meant by the Four Noble Truths of Suffering. 

During the Buddha's time, some individuals lived in misery to gain insight into suffering. They inflicted various forms of pain and torture upon themselves. The Buddha embarked on this exact path for six long years, enduring extreme physical hardship, consuming minimal amounts of food, and barely keeping his heart beating. When He was on the brink of death, He realised this was not the way to attain salvation. As a result, Buddha advised not to follow this extreme. Therefore, “Atta kilamathānuyoga”, or an austere life in which subjecting oneself to unnecessary suffering and forcefully abstaining from any comforts, is not something our readers would need to do to pursue their salvation. If one genuinely had to suffer to attain Nibbāna, those in the four great hells would be the first to achieve Nibbāna! Don’t you think? 

In His discourses, the Buddha referred to two types of suffering. In the Pali, these are Dukkha and Dukkha dukkha. Dukka is the kind of suffering that one needs to see through the eye of wisdom; it is not a suffering that can be felt. Dukkha dukkha, on the other hand, is what we can observe all around us. It is the experiential suffering which stems from the former, Dukkha. One form of Dukkha Dukkha is the rebirth process, especially when one is born in the lowest four realms or the apāyas. But it does not stop there. All forms of emotional suffering, which all sentient beings are all too familiar with, fall into this category—fear, sorrow, grief, distress, anxiety, disappointments, lamentation, to name a few. On the other hand, Dukkha is the incessant distress we all undergo, even without realising it. Anyone, rich or poor, undergoes this type of suffering in this life. The Buddha pointed out that one could discover this “hidden” suffering and eradicate it by realising the Four Noble Truths. We will dissect this concept in more depth in a future article.

What we should NOT do is overindulge in any worldly pleasures. That is the other extreme that the Buddha advised to avoid: kāma sukhallikānuyoga, or over-indulging in sense pleasures, i.e., to live a hedonistic life. This is not necessarily because it is sinful, as some might claim, but more so because indulgence in sensuality is not the remedy to the disease of desire. It is to no avail; it is futile.

Kottu Roti

During the time of the Buddha, many of the prevalent religions and philosophies were based on kāma sukhallikānuyoga or atta kilamathānuyoga. One interpretation of these terms means falling into temptation or suppressing it. However, the Buddha proved both these views are flawed. Let me employ an example to illustrate this to our readers. 

Let us imagine you were enjoying your weekend, and on a fine Saturday evening, out of the blue, a thought manifests in your mind: You want to have a kottu roti. I’m sure most of our readers would forgive me for assuming that you might not deny yourself a cheeky Kottu occasionally. While you had other options at your disposal, you got yourself a kottu roti. When one’s mind becomes possessed and consumed with a thought, it becomes unbearable, and you relieve that vexation like a pressure cooker that lets off steam when it becomes uncontainable. This is indulgence in kāma sukhallikānuyoga in real life. This method is flawed because no matter how much kottu roti you consume, while it does cure your hunger, as all food items do, it will never satisfy a mind desiring kottu. If it contains happiness, the more you consume, the happier you should become. Would you not agree? But what happens next? The pleasure generated by each bite keeps decreasing as the number of bites increases. In other words, it gives diminishing returns. If a kottu roti is so-called ‘delicious’, how come there are people who are not a fan of it? I am one of those weirdos. Furthermore, I challenge our readers to prove to me where the deliciousness or the happiness is contained in a kottu. If it includes those, then surely deliciousness and happiness must be one of its ingredients. Let’s investigate. I was able to get the ingredients of a kottu roti using a legitimate and trustworthy site on the internet (a renowned culinary repository). The list goes: flour, salt, eggs, carrots, leeks, etc. After thoroughly checking the ingredients list, I could not find deliciousness and happiness. I thought maybe the author had missed them while compiling this recipe. Therefore, I checked multiple sites, and the results were the same. Deliciousness and happiness are not included in a kottu roti! The shock and horror! 

Let us now imagine you had some willpower and did not fall into temptation. You suppressed your thoughts, like submerging a rubber ball in a pool of water. Though society deems this courageous and the correct thing to do, this is the other end of the spectrum. I.e. atta kilamathānuyoga. Though this sounds like a winner, and although better than its ugly sibling, it is also very much flawed. Not having the kottu roti against your will is not a lasting, viable solution because there will come a point where once the pressure becomes unbearable, you will feel as if an evil spirit has possessed your mind, and it won’t stop until you relieve it; that is by consuming the kottu roti, just like the aforementioned rubber ball rising to the top once the water pressure becomes too great for your hand to bear.   

Majjhimā Paṭipadā

Now, let’s examine the misinterpreted middle path the ‘wise’ boozer was referring to earlier. Let me offer another example, perhaps one that is a bit more hard-hitting. Imagine one of your loved ones was in a state of much psychological distress and is considering self-harm. How would you feel if someone were to offer “do it in moderation” as a piece of advice? If you were having a bad day, you might even imagine the imprint of your fist debossed on their face! Our readers should realise this idea of ‘use it in moderation’ is neither relevant nor fitting when we consider the goal of the Noble Eightfold Path is Nibbana. I suppose many of these misconceptions exist because we seem to have grasped the tail-end of most Buddhist teachings that were prevalent in their purest form in the time of our forefathers. 

Often, most Pāli words have more than one meaning. Conventional or mundane (loukika) and transcendental (lokottara). Thus, Majjhimā paṭipadā is an excellent first step to avoid both an austere life (with self-inflicted suffering and hardship) or a hedonistic (over-indulgent) life in the conventional sense. However, there is more to it. There is a deeper meaning to Majjhimā Paṭipadā. The way to a peaceful existence (or to Nibbāna) is to eliminate greed, hate, and delusion. The two extremes discussed above involve hatred or at least paṭigha or ‘friction’ when subjecting oneself to suffering and desire, where one indulges in excessive sensual pleasures. Simply avoiding the two extremes is not enough to ensure one is on the right path. The Path is not merely a compromise between these two extremes; in fact, the “Middle Path” is a misnomer for the Fourth Noble Truth. Majjhimā in this context does not refer to the middle of anything; instead, it relates to a medium – not as in the in-between state of low and high, but rather the path to a destination. The key to success is learning and practising Dhamma and gradually reducing one's desire, aversion, and delusion. Of course, living a life that avoids these extremes is helpful, if not essential, for learning Dhamma and purifying the mind. It is a virtue in itself to avoid being influenced by an "intoxicated mind", which can lead to improper behaviour. People can act immorally when intoxicated by power, beauty, position, knowledge, lineage, alcohol, or drugs, as all such tendencies are rooted in avijjā or ignorance.

Majjhima Paṭipadā is about understanding and applying the theory of cause and effect whenever thoughts arise. When you analyse the causes, the knowledge generated throughout that process will dissolve that (strong) urge. Let’s go back to the example of the kottu. If we were to carefully jot down the causes as to why a desire to have a kottu arose, the forefront of that list would not always be hunger, would it? There must have been plenty of occasions when you tucked into a kottu as a treat for the senses rather than a meal to sate your hunger. When you walk past the restaurants on your way home, the nostalgia of one of the more memorable occasions of having kottu, the aroma and the iconic sound generated when the two flat metal utensils are chopping and mixing the ingredients while rhythmically clattering on a flat hot plate... These laid the platform for that thought to manifest in your mind. This thought would not arise in the mind if any of those causes were missing. The point to understand here is that this thought would manifest in anyone’s mind if these causes were to align, not just in yours. If one were to programme a robot with the views of the average person on kottu, the robot would arrive at the same conclusion on this occasion. The root cause of this temptation was ignorance and false ideas placed in your memory. At the end of the day, it was just one thought out of the many you have during each day; that is it. It will pass soon enough. The key is not to become a slave to the mind. Our teachers constantly advise us to comprehend the workings of the mind and the nature of the thought, to be mindfully aware when the mind is overtaken by desire, aversion and delusion.

Mindfulness

In summary, we must be mindful when thoughts arise and let common sense prevail. The Buddha encouraged living a comfortable yet simple life that facilitates meditation, or perhaps better-phrased contemplation, as often as possible. Avoiding immoral actions, speech, or thoughts as much as possible and cultivating moral actions, speech, and thoughts will significantly aid this process. This constant practice will help to suppress and eventually eradicate the five hindrances or pañca nīvaraṇa and have a peaceful state of mind, i.e., one could start experiencing the nirāmisa sukha that arises due to a purer state of mind. All of this will gradually elevate your mind to a noble state. It means voluntarily giving up, and not giving up attachments to this world by sheer will or force. This is something most people do not comprehend either. The mind will not give up things that it considers pleasurable. One may be able to let go of an object physically, but the mental attachment will prevail until one realises the true nature of this world. At that point, it is the attachment that the mind will give up, and then what does it matter whether the physical object is still in one’s possession or not? Along with the cessation of attachment, suffering will also have ceased. Life cannot be any simpler when our readers understand how their mind works. What might seem like an earth-shattering problem today will seem like child’s play. This might have been a bit deep for a Sunday morning. I do apologise, but at the same time, I hope this was useful to our readers. So now that you have understood that neither indulgence nor abstinence is the answer to eradicating desire, but instead it is practising the noble eightfold path, the next time you feel the urge for a kottu, what will you do? Will you eat, or will you not, or is that not the wrong question? Good luck until we meet in the next article.