The Four Noble Truths

I found this chapter to be very humbling I guess is how I would put it. The part that has really stuck out in my mind is about death and how it is unavoidable to anyone and that it does not just effect one person. Even though this is true we humans are always trying to find ways to keep ourselves alive as long as we possibly can to delay the inevitable. When I was younger I used to fear death and it scared me to think that I could die at anytime and wondered if anyone would have cared. I soon realized that death was nothing to fear and that it was just a natural part of life and people do mourn death, and I guess it took longer for me to come to an actually understanding of death was not until the end of my senior year of high school when a friend of mine died in a car accident that I truly saw that death is not just an end but a beginning as well. And that suffering is a part of healing and to truly accept the passing of someone you must mourn them in your own way and go through the suffering for that is what makes you stronger.

I also like how this chapter talks about having to give up our worldly possessions and that its not what we own that makes us great it's what inside that really counts. In today's world you see so many people that just want want want and are never happy with what they have and are never content. And then there are the people who have nothing and want nothing and are the most content and sincere people on the planet. I think it just goes to show that in our society most people view your worth by the things you own and not what is in your heart and to me that is what is most important.

I think that maybe if more people could read the four noble truths and actually take what it says to heart that they would be more understanding of their fellow man and that the world might be a more pleasant place and we all might get along better and love one another and be a better nation for it.

An Experiment in Turning A Simple Thing Into Many Difficult Things

I am without the book, but since the teachings of the Buddha are free to everyone, and easily accessible . . . I'll wing it.

(photo "The Four Noble Truths" from: The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order )

The Four Noble Truths. It's a shame there is not, and has not been, a universal human language, for even in the translation of these four simple sentences there are vast chasms of murkiness about which words to use. But then, the situation of not having a universal language highlights just how pervasive a truth the first Noble Truth is.

I am not going to use this translation from 4Truths.com:

1) THE EXISTENCE OF IMPERMANENCE "Dukkha"
2) THE ARISING OF SUFFERING BECAUSE OF CRAVING "Samudaya"
3) THE CESSATION OF SUFFERING "Nirodha"
4) THE MIDDLE WAY, or THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH "Magga"

I am going to use this translation from BuddhaWeb:

Four Noble Truths
1. Suffering exists
2. Suffering arises from attachment to desires
3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
4. Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path

Simple and to the point. It correctly highlights the one part of life every living thing would like to do without: suffering. The first truth is noble because it is honest. The second truth is noble because it is insightful. The third truth is noble because it is a promise. The fourth truth is noble because it is the answer.

What is the Eightfold Path? According to BuddhaWeb, which is basically the same translation I am familiar with, the path to freedom from suffering is: right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right contemplation.

Ah, but what is right? This second part, though simple, is not easy. Not easy at all. Not even easy to define. What is right? Well, things get murky at this point:

Three Characteristics of Existence

1. Transiency (anicca)
2. Sorrow (dukkha)
3. Selflessness (anatta)

Five Hindrances

1. Sensuous lust
2. Aversion and ill will
3. Sloth and torpor
4. Restlessness and worry
5. Skeptical doubt

Seven Factors of Enlightenment

1. Mindfulness
2. Investigation
3. Energy
4. Rapture
5. Tranquility
6. Concentration
7. Equanimity

. . . and then there's the Four Reliances . . . and it keeps on going like the energizer bunny to the Four Immeasurable Prayers, the Six Perfections, the Eight Auspicious Symbols, . . . and more. Hmm . . . talk about your ten thousand things . . .