Letting go of negative emotions, (or Buddhism in the age of Trumpism)

“I teach nothing but only suffering, and the transformation of suffering”, said theBuddha. His teaching consists of self-examination to understand the true nature of our emotions and things around us, an ethical path to “do no harm”, and a spiritual transformation to attain Nirvana.

It is not easy to fully follow Buddhist teaching, however. If ignorance and the pursuit of ephemeral pleasures are at the root of our suffering, finding truth or leading the life of an ascetic are definite challenges to common folks and philosophers alike. And if reaching Nirvana (which literally means “extinction”, or a state of “no-self”) is the ultimate Enlightenment, who among us actually wants to feel “extinct” or “empty”?

So, is there any practical teaching in Buddhism? Well, yes indeed. If we learn how to deal with our negative emotions – delusion, greed, ill will, fear and anger - we may remove many causes of our suffering. 

Let’s take delusion and greed. Some degree of self-confidence and righteousness is important in life, but imagine an individual who is totally self-focused, has no empathy for others, and turns pride into self-promotion and grandiosity. He may know “the art of the deal” and command power over others – manipulative or real, but he will soon find himself surrounded only by opportunistic business partners, and no true friends. When successes are only temporary or not big enough, when simple failures or unfulfilled expectations are bound to come along, he will fall into self-pity and blame, suspicion and paranoia, envy and blame, and eventually anger – the first step toward violence against others, and ultimately, toward his own self-destruction. Such a man deserves our pity, for he is the loneliest, saddest man on earth.

Fear and anger are strong emotions we all experience, and they even have an evolutionary benefit. Fear alerts us to danger, and anger can be a force propelling us to rise against injustice. Innate and important as they are to our human condition, they can be harmful when they drive our actions. As individuals, we all have times when we regret our irrational behavior or harm we have caused to others and to ourselves when we act in fear and anger. At a wider societal level, fear and anger can be extremely dangerous: they are the first tools used by fascists to move popular masses against groups that don’t share our tribal culture, our religious practices, or just happen to be easy scapegoats for our economic misfortunes. Fear and anger are the weapons of military and political propaganda, and the motives behind misinformation on social media, used by enemies from within and without to poison our reasoning, derail civil discussions, widen our divisions, and dehumanize those we have no empathy for. Fear and anger are the wood and fire of personal hatred and social violence.

And so, this is where I find the teaching of Buddha most useful to me. Not by giving up all my illusions, desires, passions, and even fantasies - for without them, there will be no creativity in art, no progress in science, and no joy or love in our lifetime on this earth, the only one I know. Neither will I be pursuing a nebulous Nirvana, for I can’t imagine what it is like to be there. But this I know: I should face my negative emotions, and I should not let delusion, fear and anger rule me. My first step toward the end of suffering, and a reminder to “do no harm”to others, and to myself. Who would have thought that the Buddhist Dharma is actually the ultimate cognitive-behavioral therapy?

Chinh T. Le

Written for the "Interfaith Voices section" of the Gazette Times, Corvallis, February 24, 2019; Published on June 7, 2019. Chinh was raised as a Buddhist and is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis.