I was fired from an evangelical church in the mid-1980s. I was the pastor. I was accused of heresy. What was the supposed heresy? I had taught them we are not sinners; I did not say we did not sin. Anyway, in the Christian Scripture, "sinner" is simply someone who "sins" (i.e., misses the mark). "Sinner" does not define who anyone is, even as "unenlightened" does not.
In contrast, the same Scripture shows how Jesus' religious adversaries, not Jesus, enjoyed referring to people as "sinners." And when the same Scripture addresses early Christians, by far the reference is to them as "saints," also rendered "holy, or consecrated, ones." In Buddhism also, we learn we are already a buddha. We are a buddha learning we are a buddha; so, we are not trying to become a buddha or trying to get ourselves fixed to become anything.
Clinging to ourselves as sinners, unenlightened, or whatever so-called sacrosanct negative label is placed on us does the world no good. And to say, "I experience suffering" does not mean, "I am suffering."
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Marianne Williamson refers to Jesus saying in the Gospel of John 16.33 (AV), "I have overcome the world," as he speaks to his disciples. He says this to his students, encouraging them to live with cheerful hearts.
Later, Williamson writes a telling sentence. She writes, "We can have the overcoming, but not if we hang on to the cross."
Coming up a Protestant, many would wear crosses, but Jesus was not on the cross. I later discovered how Catholics wore crucifixes, and Jesus was on the cross. Interestingly, in the early centuries of Christianity, the resurrection was its principal symbol, not the crucifixion. That changed.
Many people do not seem to want Jesus down from that cross. They seem fascinated with his pain and suffering, as though we honor Jesus in such a macabre manner. Could this be because they are afraid or ignorant of the implications of his resurrection?
The Buddha went through a lot of suffering to awaken to his - and our - non-suffering nature. Suffering led him to sit under the Bodhi tree and remain until he saw the Truth. One thing that attracted me to Buddhism is how portrayals of the Buddha show him with a slight smile and a peaceful look. Buddhists call attention to his and our true nature. In this way, they urge us to recognize our nature. Our nature is not suffering; we are not suffering - but we act like it, if we think that.
We can be so attached to our suffering that we have forgotten how to embrace our non-suffering nature, one of love, joy, and peace. Our mind keeps returning to suffering: sins, shortcomings, discontent, despair, anger, resentment, jealousy, envy, what she or he did to me way back then or yesterday, ... This blocks the shining of our innate luminosity. We get obsessed with trying to fix ourselves. We think ourselves spiritually inept, and so we act that way. This self is a pretend self.
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As Williamson writes, we cannot enjoy the resurrection, accepting newness of life, while clinging to the cross: suffering. The Christian Scripture reads, "Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death (i.e., crucifixion), so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead (likely, meaning world of the dead; ie., Hades) by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6.4, NRSVU). Getting stuck at the "buried," one misses the enjoyment of the life, which is a resurrection from the suffering self, the false self. And the false self is a false self regardless of how holy or enlightened it appears; it is still a suffering self, possibly more in denial for appearing as it does.
We cannot join in the uplifting by identifying ourselves with the downfallenness. If my hands are clinging to the cross, they cannot open to the resurrection. If I sit at Life is Suffering, my life will be mostly suffering, and I will see myself as a sufferer.
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So, the Buddha began his Four Noble Truths with Suffering. The first fact is sometimes rendered Life is Suffering. Yet, he did not stop there. He discovered we do not have to remain with Life is Suffering - or we can - it is our choice.
Sure, we engage in spiritual practice partly to address our suffering. Often, suffering leads us to seek spiritually to get some relief. But we do not address suffering from suffering. If we do this, we identify ourselves with it and enhance it.
Instead, we come from non-suffering: our basic goodness, our fundamental wellness. From this space, we see afflictive feelings are not necessary, that they are an extra, or overlay. You could throw a huge load of excrement on a diamond, and the diamond would still be a diamond. The excrement would still be excrement and stink like it, but not the diamond. Buddhists often call this innate healthiness Buddha Nature, while Christians call it the Image of God.
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In our spiritual walk, we need not forget this fundamental soundness. Suffering is compared in Buddhism to clouds passing through the sky. Clouds have different colors, densities, and sizes. They indicate diverse weather conditions present or coming. Sometimes, there may be a few clouds in the sky, sometimes many. Sometimes, the clouds may be separate, while other times there is a vast cloud mass.
Nonetheless, clouds are clouds, while the sky is not changed by the clouds. The sky is comparable to our innate nature. Different states of thought and feeling pass through the mind-and-body, some of which are emotionally painful, some not so, yet what does not change?
The Buddha Dharma points us beyond identification with the fleeting clouds, whether of suffering or not. We need to see and celebrate the positive aspects of our lives and ourselves. We can let Jesus off the cross and ourselves off our crosses. We can see Nirvana is already here, as close as we are to ourselves. You already live in the Pure Land, do you see that? When you see it, you can really enjoy it.
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Being positive about our true self is not denial or suppression, not if we are also honest about suffering. Recognizing and welcoming the innate wholeness and innocence means uplifting energy is communicated to others. We can help others get off their crosses. We can inspire others to move from Life is Suffering. When we do this for one person, we do it for all, for there is less sufffering then in our world. And we need less, do we not? Who is helped by Jesus still on the cross?
Remembering who we are means inviting others to do the same. When we do this, we can work compassionately with our suffering from a posture of wellness, our brokenness from one of wholeness. We are not fixing ourselves, for we do not need fixing; we are returning to ourselves. We are remembering ourselves, even celebrating ourselves. Then, we recognize and celebrate others and prayerfully acknowledge the suffering in our world and how we hurt others and ourselves. Getting off the cross, moving on from Life is Suffering, is a profound act of compassion for others and ourselves.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2024
*Quote from Marianne Williamson, The Mystic Jesus: The Mind of Love.
