Fold Your Own Path

This reading begins by describing itself as a practical guide to end suffering and to discover the "truth of all things". I had a hard time digesting it as such.

On the first read through, these guidelines sounded really good. The idea of a walkway to enlightenment and away from suffering is like el dorado to someone without any plan of achieving salvation (this guy). However, the wording and concepts used reflect the authors belief that there is an objective "right" or even "suffering" that is true to every human. I don't think this is true, salvation and suffering are extremely subjective concepts, what they mean to one person is often very different to another. So, even the concepts of enlightenment and a "truth of all things" seem like things that could be experienced by two seperate people entirely differently, and possibly achieved in two different ways.

Although the eight folds provide the framework for a complex and sophisticated perspective on the world, I think it's impossible for anyone to really put an end to the suffering that is a natural part of being human. People are suffering right now and death is inevitable, not only our own death but that of our friends and our families and our pets and every living thing on this planet. If that doesnt make you anxious then you're in denial. I beleive we have no way of knowing what comes afterwards and that's terrifying too, and I don't think that any amount of self-help can change that.

However, I think there's a real value to realizing the limits of our existence, "to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas" and to use that understanding to expand and enjoy our finite lives. Although i think the broad ideas laid out by the Eightfold path overlook some individual circumstances and conditions, the conceptual frame contains valuable advice: not to act cruelly, to develop compassion, to unify our mental faculties in one direction of our expansion. These are practical steps I think we can use to make our lives better and improve those of people around us, but the underlying path to enlightenment is something we must develop from our own experience.