The Four Noble Truths

Despite that many have claimed their separations, East and West have common threads both in philosophical and religious circumstances. The Four Noble Truths follows the same guideline format that other religions use such as the Ten Commandments or the Five Pillars of Islam. Other themes I found within that particular piece were other religious themes such as deliverance, purity, The Peaceful One, and the Holy life.

Within my personal experience, such ideas such as purity, one true being, the true path etc. are simply unnecessary and distracting. The hard way stated that following one or another organization's form of the way/the proper way to live/the simple way to live isn't the "Hard way". The Hard Way is life itself. The Hard Way is the crevasse beside the cliff and the cliff represents those organizations or ways of thinking that can, and often do prevent us from fully experiencing life as it occurs. We are afraid to sample the edge, sample the great vastness that occurs within our universe, our worlds, our thoughts. It is that fear that keeps us from revealing our true selves and our true intentions.

In summary, I feel that this piece represents the ideas of religion and religious philosophy and provides a guideline as to the proper way one should live their lives and the distractions that will keep them from this path. I also feel that the methods and the message Trungpa's "The Hard Way"suggest can apply better to our own lives and understand how to live in a way that is true and positive to one's outlook upon life.