Expert: John Willemsens aka Advayavadananda - 3/1/2009

Question
Hi, I understand all life is suffering, but some of us get way more suffering than others.  My friend has cancer, he's young, he'll die, and he's in constant pain.  While, Judea-Christian values will answer, only God knows why some suffer more than others, what is the Buddhist response?  While we all suffer, some suffer more than others, what is the purpose?

Answer
Hello Marc,

B.C. Law already tells us in his 1937 Concepts of Buddhism that duhkha or suffering is nowhere postulated in the Buddhist scriptures as a "permanent feature of reality" and is only "admitted and entertained as a possible contingency in life as it is generally lived". He explains duhkha or suffering thus: "The problem of dukkha is essentially rooted in the feeling of discord or disparity. Birth, decay or death is not in itself dukkha. These are only a few contingencies in human experience which upset the expectations of men. From the point of view of mind, dukkha is just a vedana or feeling which is felt by the mind either in respect of the body or in respect of itself, and as a feeling, it is conditioned by certain circumstances. In the absence of these circumstances there is no possibility of its occurrence. Whether a person is affected by dukkha or not depends on the view he or she takes of things. If the course of common reality is that being once in life, one cannot escape either decay or death, and if the process of decay sets in or death actually takes place, there is no reason why that person should be subject to dukkha by trying to undo what cannot be undone. Thus dukkha is based upon misconstruction of the dhammata or law of things or their way of happening in life." (The aforegoing from our webpage http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/qanda3.htm)

Beliefnet quoted the following a couple of days ago from "Seeing the Way", by the monk Ajahn Sumedho, with which we agree:
The pain, the discomfort, the sickness are what they are. We can always cope with the way life moves and changes. The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed.

This gives you an idea of the position of Advayavada Buddhism. There is no purpose nor comparing in our world-view. What we need to do is find a cure for cancer and in the meantime support our friends who have it with good painkillers and lots of love.

Kind regards,
Advayavadananda.