The Essence of Buddhism

The Essence of Buddhism

by Sara Dechen Lhamo

I thought I would explain what Buddhism is, as simply as possible, and how it works, in plain language whilst also explaining some important key Buddhist terms. So, without further ado, here it goes:

The Three Main things: 

 

• Klesha avarana (emotion obscurations)

• Jneya avarana (thought obscurations)

• Tathagata-garbha (The Buddha Embryo, Our True Nature, and source of Intuition)

In Buddhism, we are taught that our True Nature, our Buddha Embryo, our True Self is already enlightened. However it is covered up, obscured by our emotions, and thoughts. To be able to be enlightened all the time, we have to learn to listen to our intuition, which is that third source of information, and voice of our True Selves, and also purify and master our emotions and thoughts so that they no longer trouble us. To do so, there are three primary ways (antidotes) that we do this. To master our emotions, we do so by seeing that our emotions are not true reality. To master our thoughts, we do so by seeing that every object of our thoughts is actually interconnected. And third, both obscurations can be removed by meditation, on Shunyata, the true underlying nature of reality. And we do this by the regular daily practice of observing everything (including our emotions and thoughts) arise and pass and seeing the interconnected nature of things.

The Cause of Suffering (the Second Noble Truth) in Buddhism is that from lifetime to lifetime, we inherit klesha avarana (negative emotions) and jneya avarana (negative thought patterns), through karma from this and previous lives. Karma refers to actions, and by this we mean volitional actions (actions we chose to do) through our body, our speech, and our mind. Because actions have consequences, some actions lead to the cessation of suffering (enlightened, or meritorious activity; willing actions) and some actions create harm for ourselves and others (willful actions). Notice that the commonality here, is the positive or negative use of our free will.
 

The actions that create harm for ourselves and others, set up the klesha avarana (emotional obscurations) and jneya avarana (thought obscurations) that block us from seeing our True Natures (our tathagatagarbha). This experience of not seeing our True Natures is painful, and is what we experience as negative emotions and thoughts in this and future lives. One might think of this as a kind of karmic “PTSD” as it were, that is passed down from past to future lives. The main form that this takes is fear, which leads to confusion, aversion, and clinging (the Three Poisons), and these later compound and complicate themselves into all the negative emotions and thoughts that we see people having with all the mental illnesses, and stresses, and neurosis we see forth. All of these things are just different types of klesha avarana and jneya avarana.
 

To undo this pattern, to undo this suffering, requires implementing the three antidotes to the avarana, (the obscurations) that were previously mentioned. In the process of doing this, we may have past lives come up, or see many other insights. But the important thing is to purify and remove the obscuring kleshas and jneyas (the negative emotions and thought patterns).

"[When the] obscurations are removed, the intuitive knowledge of our True Natures, our tathagatagarbha can flow freely..."

To help prevent new karmic obscurations from forming, there are lists of certain actions which are particularly known for causing suffering. These are usually shown in the form of the Ten Precepts, or Ten Unwholesome Actions, or other lists. But these are not a hard and fast rule, and while they are helpful, ultimately we have to trust our own intuition, as well as remove the obscuring avarana, so we may be free of the klesha avarana and jneya avarana (emotion and thought obscuration) that block our view of our True Self. Once those obscurations are removed, the intuitive knowledge of our True Natures, our tathagatagarbha can flow freely, and with our thoughts and emotions completely at peace, we have true happiness. A happiness beyond “happiness". True Tranquility and Rest. And real Peace. And we call this Nirvana, or the Cessation of Suffering.
 

Once Nirvana is reached, since there no longer is any klesha avarana, and jneya avarana (obscuring emotions and thoughts) that obscure our view of our True Natures, we also no longer create any new negative karmic obscurations (because there is no more fear and other negative emotions and thoughts that would lead us to do unwholesome actions, or anything blocking our intuitive flow of our True Natures), and thus there is no more karmic obscuration that is reborn and passed on to future lives. Thus at the time of death, we enter parinirvana which is the final nirvana of the time of death. Thus breaking the wheel of the cycle of suffering, and preventing new suffering from taking place in the future. We are freed.
 

Also, one final very important note: When talking about a “self” in Buddhism, you’ll often hear people talk about how there’s no "self” or no “ego”. What is actually being talked about here, is the klesha avarana and jneya avarana. It’s not referring to the True Self, our tathagatagarbha. Because people often mistake their emotions and thoughts for their True Self; as a short-hand, Buddhists will often refer to these things as the “self” or the “ego” in Buddhism, and say there’s no “self” or no “ego”. But it’s very important to know what this means, and that it refers to the fact that the klesha avarana and jneya avarana are not our True Self, and are actually what is obscuring our view of our True Natures. And this is a very important point.



© 2019 Sara Dechen Lhamo