Towards the Truth

35
striving, i.e. non-attainment. And non-attainment is unsatisfactory.
Sorrow understood as disharmony is not the root of all, but it is the
effect of misunderstanding. Whether we like it or not, there it is,
and the closing of our eyes does not remove it from our yes.
This universal disharmony, which expresses itself in planning,
striving, craving and clinging, is actuality; and as such it forms
the foundation of the Buddha’s teaching. But that does not make
Buddhism pessimistic.
Just as a Christian can rejoice over Christ dying on the cross,
because thereby his own redemption was worked out—so a Buddhist
sees in the understanding of sorrow the possibility of his release from
sorrow. Not sorrow is the goal of Buddhism, but the deliverance
from sorrow, “As there is in the mighty ocean but one taste, the
taste of salt, thus there is in my teaching but one taste, the taste
of deliverance”, said the Buddha in the Udana. That certainly does
not “smack of the morbid”. Buddhism is not a religion of sorrow
and sadness, it is not a pessimistic philosophy as Schopenhauer’s
but it leads to the purest happiness and joy, because it teaches the
deliverance from sorrow and its cause: “One thing only do I teach:
Woe and how its end to reach”.
But in order to be delivered from sorrow we must first understand
what sorrow is. But those who refuse to look at sorrow will
never be able to understand it. Without understanding it, they
thoroughly enjoy it; they simply wallow in it like a pig in the mud.
And that constitutes the problem of life. It is that disharmony which
gives us the liking for competition, for rivalry, yes, for debating! And
who will say that we did not enjoy these three days? But did they
solve our problem? We have not even understood our problem, because
instead of analysing the cause of our dissatisfaction, we merely
try to drown our disappointment in the bliss of ignorance. But to
sacrifice truth for the sake of bliss is worse than compromise, which
according to someone is a “betrayal of the truth”: it is murder, the
murder of truth!