Here’s what occurred to me regarding the “system side” while meditating at Spirit Rock. The Four Noble Truths basically suggest that all our suffering is self-created by the way we think. I agree with that to some extend. I would certainly agree that we tend to add to our suffering by the way we think. For example, if I have lower back pain – it hurts but it’ll hurt more and cause me more problems if I keep telling myself how horrible my back pain is, that it shouldn’t be there etc.

However, there is a system side that also creates suffering: I don’t think the poverty experienced by billions of people is all in their heads. I would almost bet that they’re too busy surviving to even add to that suffering with mental anguish. They don’t have time to fight reality! So, their suffering is caused by something other than their clinging: it is created by the large inequalities that exist between rich and poor people and rich and poor nations. In order to resolve that suffering, though, you have to address much bigger issues; and these issues won’t be resolved by simply meditating under a Bodhi tree. Howard Cohn, one of the Spirit Rock teachers, translated “dukkha” not as suffering but as stress. We have stress reactions that are 100% physiological. In fact, the origin of stress is a survival mechanism – if you didn’t get all stressed out, you couldn’t get away from that saber tooth tiger! So, again, in my opinion, that stress is solely caused by attachment does not hold up.

Another example for not seeing the system side comes from within the Buddhist teacher community: an older teacher couple, the Stephen and Ondrea Levine are having medical problems and thus financial problems. So, their son, Noah, the Dharma Punk, forwarded an appeal for financial support. But nowhere in that appeal does it say: this is why we need universal health care! To me, their plight is a clear example of why the current health care system doesn’t work…