In traditional Buddhist studies, there is a concept called the Four Laws of the Dharma[1] which systematically identify four truths concerning objects of experience. These “objects of experience” are the very things that we experience or even better, they are anything that we experience physically, mentally, emotionally and so on. The Prajñaparamita Hridaya sutra[2] breaks down every possible experience into five categories which are; form, feeling, perception, mental impulses and consciousness. Therefore, every thing that we come into contact with or experience falls into one of these five categories.[3] A deeper understanding of these five categories reveals that all objects within them innately posses the characteristics of the Four Laws of the Dharma. According to these Four Laws, all of these “objects of investigation” are conditioned, they appear to us in such a way due to the spin, judging, opinions and emotions we project onto the objects. So it is said that they are conditioned by our perception – our thoughts. The Four Laws go on to say that these conditioned objects are also impermanent, never remaining constant; related to suffering; and the conditioned objects are wholly without a “self” – empty of an innate identity (shunyata in Skrt). It is these Four Laws of the Dharma that we are not just trying to understand in an academic sense, but they are the truths that we ought to be testing in our meditation.
Let us take a closer look at how the objects of experience are related to suffering. First of all we should clarify that “suffering” does not necessarily denote a terrible pain, like the loss of a loved one though it certainly means that as well, but it also implies a sense of dissatisfaction which is more often than not a very subtle form of suffering. The objects of experience are said to be associated with our emotions and it is because of this association that every object is subject to cause us suffering. This underlying element of suffering or dissatisfaction that comes with these objects is a natural occurring association just like the scent of an orange is attached to the fruit itself. Any object of form, such as a nice car we may want or already own or any mental formation like the thought ‘if I could only achieve this one thing all would be well,’ are usually connected to an emotion and more often than not, they are connected to many, many emotions. Our attachments to these objects because of the emotional relationship cause us a tremendous amount of grief. We are worried about achieving our goals or we are worried about how to keep what we have achieved and in both cases, we tend to be dissatisfied with what we have or what we get. If the object brings us pleasure, then we desire more of it and if it causes us pain, we do all we can to get rid of it and keep it away from us…sometimes at all costs. It is due to these feelings of dissatisfaction that the Buddha said that even pleasure is a form of suffering. All emotional states that are related to some object whether internal or external have the potential to cause suffering. We should also take note that even within this study we find the impermanence of an object to be connected to our emotions.
The impermanent characteristics of these objects of experience may not always be at the forefront of our minds and yet there may still be an underlying suffering that is generated with the deep innate knowledge we have that the objects we are attached to will not last forever. This understanding of impermanence can be a useful tool in achieving equanimity if we contemplate every experience we have with this knowledge, although it must be equally applied to both the experiences we enjoy and dislike. Of the Four Laws of the Dharma, the law of impermanence has been taught all through history and in nearly every religious traditional so much so that there are a number of well known slogans or proverbs that contain the essence of it. Slogans like “This too shall pass” and so on. Where we fail with this knowledge is that we tend to only pull it out when everything is going wrong. You rarely hear a person say during a moment of extreme happiness “This will fade away in due time” but the minute everything goes wrong, we run to these slogans hoping they will dull out the misery. Unfortunately this kind of practice never works because we have not consistently trained ourselves to see the law of impermanence in its true light. It’s like saying to ourselves when ever we feel good, we need to ignore the law of impermanence and when we feel bad, we must try and cling to a perverted view that only the bad stuff is “impermanent.” This skewed view of impermanence is reinforced when we do all we can to hold on to the good feelings the moment they begin to fade. This of course is the root of addiction – addiction to feelings. Therefore if the knowledge of impermanence is equally applied to every experience, those that are good, neutral or bad, we will gain wisdom that then offers us equanimity within every experience. That wisdom is the active change of our perception but it is a change that only comes after consistent paying attention and meditation.
Like scientists, we have the lab notes of someone else’s experiments but we must perform the experiments ourselves to prove entirely to ourselves and for our own personal benefit. These truths mean nothing if they have not been tried and tested for ourselves. Belief, academic knowledge and faith have no functional value here and will never bring about liberation.
