Buddhisms Four Noble Truths
1. Knowledge of suffering (dukkha)
All individual existence is miserable & painful, thus life inevitably involves suffering.
I wonder if this is an eternal truth or only a passing consequence of our animal nature. Will the suffering deminish in the course of manking? Ancient humans had to face predators, famine, hatred, war etc. etc. Back when we were an animal, we had to face the chance of being devoured alive. Nowadays, we don't face these dangers, nobody has to starve anymore - at least not in our world - the first world. (It is still different in other parts of the world.)
But has the situation really improved? Some get killed in traffic accidents, others are poisened by byproducts of our industrial civilization.
But suffering is more than physical hardship:
2. Origin of suffering
Suffering (indeed, existence itself) originates in desire and ignorance; suffering is rooted in desire for things to be different than they are, or to stay as we want them.
When I am hungry, I should eat. When I am tired, I should sleep. That's obvious.
But why would I eat more than I could use?
Why would I have more money than I could spend on things that I need?
What should I do when I am bored? Watch TV? Eat chocolate? Browse CFC? Meditate?
What should I do if my neighbor has got a Mercedes and gets all the girls?
What should we do if suddenly Japan sells more cars to the world than we do?
Isn't it desire that can be found at the very basic of our economic system? People can be as rich as you'd want - and still not be satisfied.
Isn't it desire that makes any biological species procreate?
In fact, something always makes me go on and crave for more. Be it a material or immaterial thing.
A classic story about desire goes like this:
A martial arts student went to his teacher and said earnestly, "I am devoted to studying your martial system. How long will it take me to master it."
The teacher's reply was casual, "Ten years."
Impatiently, the student answered, "But I want to master it faster than that. I will work very hard. I will practice everyday, ten or more hours a day if I have to. How long will it take then?"
The teacher thought for a moment, "20 years."
Now please answer, is buddhahood a desireable thing?
3. Destruction of suffering
Suffering must be extinguished totally; and when one is able to do this one is able to break out of
samsara (the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth) and achieve Nirvana; the only way out of suffering is to relinquish desire (i.e., to become detached from likes and dislikes).
4. There is a way to remove suffering
Only through a life of morality, concentration, wisdom, can suffering be extinguished, and the way to
live such a life is to follow the Noble Eight-fold Path.
How should I put it?
I feel like a grain of sand in the storm, trying to resist the tides of my history and biology. - No, thats too kitschy...
Maybe like this:
The wise one follows the path of the best results, as he understands it, acting along what is percieved to bear the best outcome. The way to remove suffering is to forget about egotistical desires and to act according what the very situation demands.
The Noble Eightfold Path
The stepping-stones of Insight
1. Right knowledge (right understanding): recognition of the Four Noble Truths; seeing through
illusions
2. Right attitude (right thought and motives): goodwill, peaceableness
The stepping-stones of Morality
3. Right speech: no lying, chatter, gossip; the speaking only of wisdom, truthfulness
4. Right action: the domain of all moral behavior (especially, no murder, no stealing, no adultery); for
laypersons, the observance of five precepts for moral conduct:
(1) Don't destroy life (2) Don't steal
(3) Don't engage in sexual misconduct (4) Don't lie
(5) Don't use intoxicants
5. Right livelihood (right occupation): one is to earn one's living without harming others, without
disrupting the social harmony
The stepping-stones of Spiritual Discipline
6. Right effort: no evil impulses, only good ones; one is to cut oneself off from unwholesome states
(past, present, and future)
7. Right mindfulness = donÕt give in to desire; liberation through the mind
8. Right composure (right meditation) = intense concentration; mental discipline to quiet the mind
Mojo, I know you think different, but this imho is the point where free will ends. If anyone thinks he is right on a matter at stake, he will at least try to follow that path. His personal judgment demands that.
You can't make yourself do something you are not convinced of, could you?
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One more thing about the 4 and the 8 number:
I don't feel that universal truth can be brought down into numbers. Christianity knows two truth': Love thy God and love thy neighbor like yourself. Maybe someone wise enough men could come up with the 3 truths or the 5 truths, or maybe with the 7-fold path or the 9-fold path.
The truth is bigger as we can think of. Truth is more than the Ten Commandments. Truth and wisdom can't be compressed into countable paragraphs.
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Here's one more buddhist story:
One of master Gasan's monks visited the university in Tokyo. When he returned, he asked the master if he had ever read the Christian Bible. "No," Gasan replied, "Please read some of it to me." The monk opened the Bible to the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew, and began reading. After reading Christ's words about the lilies in the field, he paused. Master Gasan was silent for a long time. "Yes," he finally said, "Whoever uttered these words is an enlightened being. What you have read to me is the essence of everything I have been trying to teach you here!"
