Page 263 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

H uma n ExP Er i E ncE s: HE a l t H , HE a l in g , a n d C a r i t a s N ur s iN g
The right way to liberation, enlightenment, or elimination/trans-
formation of suffering is called the Eightfold path of Buddhism which
consists of (1) right seeing; (2) right thinking; (3) right speech; (4) right
action; (5) right effort; (6) right living; (7) right mindfulness; and (8)
right meditation (Solomon and Higgins [1997]:19).
These are big orders for how to live a life that is full of suffering
due to impermanence, when we cling for permanence and delude
ourselves that there is a permanent self and permanency of life. At
another level, the suffering is a result of our craving for separateness,
for our individuality, our independence, separating and distancing
ourselves from each other, other human beings, as well as our envi-
ronment, our world, our universe. This too contributes to human
suffering according to contemporary science as well as ancient sacred
texts.
This underlying reality of impermanence is tied up with our avoid-
ance of participating in the cyclical nature of all of life and to the law
of impermanence of all things. That is, underneath what is perceived
as fixed and unchanging reveals itself as a living paradox, a yin-yang,
both-and phenomenon. Underneath the felt suffering and pain, there
resides an abiding presence, the infinity of universal Love as a field
that offers an abiding peace, an unchanging deep stillness, an uncaused
joy that transcends good and bad, pain and no-pain (Tolle 1999). This
underneath abiding field that holds us in the midst of the constant
movement is what T. S. Eliot named “the still point.”
At the big picture level, this impermanence cycle mirrors the great
circle of birth-death; creation-destruction, growth-dissolution, mani-
fest-unmanifest fields. In this way of understanding change and imper-
manence, everything is rising up and falling away; expanding and con-
tracting, mirroring the breath and rhythm of life’s natural energetic
processes in all things.
Buddha made this discovery the very heart of his teaching: the
cyclical nature and impermanence of the universe. Everything is in
constant flux. Our challenge to find new understanding about the
nature of human suffering is not only all of our human tasks; it is a
professional task in that for a caring-healing practitioner/scientist the
two intersect. And as we seek new understandings that deepen our

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