Turning inward, Looking Outward

Today, I participated in an interview with a Ph D student regarding the effects of mindfulness in the workplace. One question that was asked of me was, does suffering end through individual effort? It was interesting to me, because it relates to this idea that Buddhist practitioners turn ‘inward’ to address the causes of their suffering, rather than looking ‘outward’ to social norms around them.

It is interesting on two accounts. The first is that separating an inward self from the outward environment is a mistake, from my understanding of the teachings. It is a cognitive error of thinking that there is a separate being from environment. The second error is in thinking that ‘individuals’ are responsible for ending suffering. It is the introduction of self, again, in a different guise, the ‘responsible individual.’  Is there any way out of this?

From a kind of practice based perspective, there is nothing to get rid of from situations at work. As I mentioned to the student this evening: there are many causes of suffering, but suffering is not something I seek to abolish, using the separate subject or self. It is the seeking itself that becomes suffering. As soon as I set up a goal of becoming happy and avoiding pain, am I not already setting up a kind of suffering within myself? So the practice is not designed to create or find a state of being that is separate from what is already present in mind right here and now.

Does this mean that Buddhism is resigned to a simple attitude of acceptance? Maybe not, because that simple attitude is just another thought attachment. But many worry that it means a more resigned attitude toward the world, and thus a turning away from addressing the real problems of the world. My answer to this is that understanding where suffering acts on the mind is actually a way to more clear engagement of mind. It means that whatever phenomena arise, mind clearly responds, in a way that there is no sense of a subtle ‘other’ in that responding. Resignation is still an attachment, and it is letting go of attachment to resignation that can lead to a full embrace of all experiences as mind itself.

           When I read the Surangama Sutra, particularly the first section, I am so struck by the subtlety of the argument and how mind has no location yet is everything. This argument suggests that trying to seclude ‘self’ from the ‘world’ is a mistaken variation of subject/object duality. Cultivating a non-dualistic approach, I stop seeing oppositions to others and start to work with them as same mind.