My problem with the third truth of Buddhism

Just in case you forgot the first two, they are, in my words:

1.  Life is Awry
2. Grasping and craving create suffering

Number 3 seems almost anti-climactic:  You can get rid of suffering.

Sounds great huh?  Everyone would love to have a life with no problems, no suffering.

But....

Zenterpretation for dafcarte

Hairless Monkeys Grasping at the Air

Those crazy monkeys keep trying to grab the moon, never realizing that all they're seeing is a reflection of it in the water.

A couple hundreds of thousands of years have left us far less hairy than them, but it hasn't made us any less confused about what is around us.

Monkeys reaching for the moon

The condition that we find ourself in doesn't really make much sense.

Life, ultimately, is awry.

The way that this condition has been described in a lot of English translations of Buddhist texts is suffering.

Rule #1 Life is Awry

There was a week of studying nonstop getting ready for class, then half a week of being sick and slowly getting better, and now I can get back to what I had planned on putting up here a couple of weeks ago- a basic explanation of some of the central ideas of Buddhism.  Here we go:




#1  Life is Awry