The Four Noble Truths: Buddhist Self-Help?

The passage about the four noble truths seemed to be all about suffering. What I got out of it is that all of life is suffering, and, to get rid of suffering, is to reach enlightenment. I think you need to suffer through life, though. I think you learn the best/most as you suffer.

The four noble truths seem to me like some sort of medical treatment plan. You have an illness (how you are suffering), a cause (why you are suffering), a cure (the fact you can abandon this suffering), and a medicine (how you are going to reach the cure--the Eightfold Path). It seems like the Buddhists are saying that you hold the cause and the cure of your own suffering; you create it, and you can escape it. It kind of sounds like an ancient self-help book.

Let's take death as an example. Let's say that your mother died last week. You are sad, maybe angry. You can't get through daily struggles because of all this sadness. You are suffering.

The Illness: Your suffering is your sadness over your mother's untimely death. You can't move on. Everyone lives and dies. According to the Buddhists, you can't hold onto people/things forever because every thing passes on.

The Cause: Your suffering is coming from your attachment to your mother. Yes, she is/was dear to you, but the Buddhist say to let go. Only with this detachment, can your suffering end, but it's not an easy task.

The Cure: Detatch from your mother.

The Medicine: The Eightfold Path. (Which kind of remind me of the 10 Commandments)

1. Right Understanding-->Understand that things are as they are. Understand that people die. Understand that life is imperfect, and that you can't cling to things all the time.

2. Right Thought-->Not to be angry at your mother for dying or to blame anyone. To think only of what she taught you, and what you can take from that, but you need to let go.

3. Right Speech-->Tell the truth and speak kindly.

4. Right Action-->Refrain from wrong and destructive actions.

5. Right Livelihood-->Do things in a righteous way.

6. Right Effort-->Nothing can be achieved without effort, but it shouldn't be misguided. Have effort in good things (i.e. kindness, love, family) and not bad (i.e. murder, stealing, anger).

7. Right Mindfulness-->Control your thoughts to good.

8. Right Concentration-->Concentrate all thoughts and actions on good.



Apparently, if you follow these steps, you can get over any sort of suffering imaginable.
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On a side-note, I found this speech by the Dalai Lama to be relevant and interesting: