In his Four Noble Truths Gautama the Buddha has in a very concise form
given us the four basic insights of the mystical experience. Every
seeker devoted to the mystical path will at a certain stage of his life
recognize these as the very essentials of spirituality. The most
important thing about these Truths is to accept them totally, not only
with our mind but with our heart also. For we cannot make any progress
on our spiritual path, if we have not accepted them to the marrow of
our bones, so to speak. A mere intellectual acceptance won´t do,
like perhaps with other truths, but we have to feel them existentially,
with the outcry of our hearts.
But this is precisely the most difficult thing about these truths. It
is so hard to accept them as true. For if we wholeheartedly accept
them, we may come to the conclusion that our whole past life has been
built on quicksand; that up till now our life was based on illusions.
This is not easy to accept, because this would entail a total shift in
consciousness. It would alter all our plans and intentions. It would
result in a complete metanoia,
a different way of looking at life and the world.
But this is precisely the metanoia the
Buddha is aiming at. If we want to be happy, we cannot go on in the
same way as we used to. Only these fundamental mystical insights will
show us the way to everlasting happiness. We have to make a one hundred
and eighty degree turn. And this can only start by accepting these
Truths. So let us very meticulously (for our life depends on it)
discuss these Noble Truths and try to come to the heart of the matter.
1. Life means
suffering
This is Buddha´s first Truth, because it is the most essential.
It is the fundament of our whole spirituality. We clearly have to see
that relative and natural life is nothing but suffering. Most people
are hesitant to accept this Truth, because they think that it is a
rather pessimistic way of viewing things. In their eyes the Buddha was
perhaps a depressed melancholic in need of anti-depressiva. They think it is a denial of the intrinsic worth of living.
They feel that Bertrand Russell was right when he said that optimism
and pessimism are not true nor false in their own right, but that
philosophical statements like these only reflect the mood we´re
in. This first Truth only tells us something about the gloomy and
disillusioned perspective of the Buddha. It has no claims to being true
or false whatsoever.
But the Buddha nor his teachings are pessimistic. They are very
factual. They tell us about the way things are. One might as well say
the opposite, that the dharma
is very optimistic because it shows us a way out of our misery. But
this is not altogether true either. In fact the Buddha and the dharma
transcend the duality of pessimism and optimism. They deal with the
´Sosein´ of things. They are only meant to describe the way
things are. If there is Nirvana, then that also belongs to the
factuality of the world. Our bondage and our liberation both belong to
the way things are. It is a scientific evaluation and not an emotional
one. The Buddha is using descriptive terms.
For the Buddha looked at life and saw that from the moment we enter
this world our life is filled with grief and suffering. We are always
in want of something. The little infant can not support herself and is
relying on the nourishment and support of her family to sustain her.
All is well when she is fed and looked after, but suffering is lurking
behind the door, ready to step in when consolations move out. Just like
the little child, the adult is also in need of such consolations. He
needs the spoon of physical and emotional love. He needs material well
being, attention, confirmation, support, the feeling to be someone. He
is afraid that all securities will slip away from under him. He is
desperately in need of permanence.
So he marries, not to be alone and to be forever loved. But emotional
feelings vary with every minute of the day. So he can never be sure of
the love of his partner. For just like himself the partner has multiple
selves roaming about in the more dark layers of her subconsciousness.
There is a self that loves and a self that doubts. There is a self
hankering after freedom and a self terrified by the thought of it.
Every tender minute of affection is paid with a minute of repulsion.
And one cannot own a person, like any purchasable commodity. One has to
share her with other men, because life is nothing but a sharing game
and no thing has no part in anything else. But marriage defies all
sharing. So in the end marriage turns out to be nothing but a
disappointment. Because one looked for certainty, but the only certain
thing about life is that it´s uncertain.
Seeing the total sham of marriage, one can turn one´s back on
family life, focus on career and dress up one´s hunger for power
and ´being someone´ with the lofty goals of working for the
community and ´making a difference´. But here the problems
only multiply. In the arena of family life the spar partners were only
few, rather under control and not even adverse all the time. But in the
arena of working life one is flooded by spar partners coming from every
hook and angle, never subdued for good and out to get you all of the
time. Never in the history of man has work, unlike for instance
procreation, been done under acceptable loving conditions, but always
with competition. So thinking the pot of gold can be reached by work
and career is deluding yourself once more, and this time in blacker
blindness, for at least your family says she´s loving you, words,
you´ll never hear uttered at the office.
But even if our marriage is to a certain degree rather tolerable, even
if our career goes smoothly in the prospected climbing pace and our
adversaries are knocked out of the way before they´ve succeeded
in knocking us down, still life will bring us innumerable sufferings.
For though the chances of being run down by a bus are not as real as
catching a cold, still a serious disease is a danger anyone has to face
up with. Any day a grave disease with its concommitant pains may strike
us. The chance does not diminish with us growing older. For when the
Buddha said that impermanence was at the root of things he put it
rather mildly. He might as well, with the same justification, have said
that decay is the natura rerum.
So our bones and our flesh are withering away day by day and along with
our physical decay our mind, our character and our moods are
deteriorating pari passu. So
what on the outside is felt as pain and disease is on the inside felt
as lack of strength, as sadness, frustration and depression. We suffer
as much on the inside as we do on the outside. And it is even worse
because even without physical pain inside suffering is possible. There
is suffering that is exclusively psychological. In comparison with the
beast our suffering is doubled because we are beings with a certain
amount of awareness. This awareness makes us conscious of our
psychological pains. The pains of the heart are just as real and
excruciating as our physical problems.
´Well, come, come, this gloom and chagrin bring a smile to my
face. Life isn´t that bad. There are plenty of amusing
experiences that make life exciting and worthwhile. We can always haul
ourselves out of our broody moods and go for the good times. People
have made it their living to give us some distraction out of our daily
rut. And what about the relaxation of making love or enjoying a good
walk in nature? These are only two examples out of a long line of
positive experiences that make up for the times we feel
depressed.´
Yes, but deep down in our heart we know that our real status quo of
living is miserable and that we are in need of somniferous distractions
to lull us into a nice and cosy sleep. We use everything we can to lay
our hands on, using such drugs as to bring us the Great Oblivion, from
low-brow beer to high-brow art. We want to run away from ourselves. We
want to forget the self that is always at the center of everything we
do. But our running away is like the bear´s, who tries to protect
himself from the stinging of the bees by covering his face with honey:
it is our very self that is the cause of all our suffering.
2. The origin of
suffering is attachment
Our relative life is forever fleeting. Every form, both material,
mental and even spiritual is always transient and impermanent. Of every
one and every thing we meet, of every thought we think, of all we ever
strive to get or hope to achieve, only one thing is certain: it will go
away. But we are not willing to accept these facts of life. And so we
suffer. We do think that our loved ones and our friends will be there
forever. Health and prosperity will last forever, so we assume. We are
clinging to the things we like and which serve our needs. But one day
these things will be taken away from us.
The common attitude to escape this truth, that is fairly known to all,
goes something like this: ´I know that everything is impermanent;
I´m also, reluctantly though, willing to accept that everything I
do is doomed to failure, but what are the alternatives? I cannot throw
my face in my hands and stay immobile the rest of my life. I can at
least pretend that some things in life are permanent. I know that
everything will be snatched away from me, when puffing out my last
breath. But when I succeed, with all the forces of my will, in keeping
the things I want, right till my dying hour, I´ll be a lucky man.
When I die, I´ll be gone and there will be no one left to regret
the loss. Let us at least enjoy the things we have, as long as we have
them. This is not too much to ask, eh? Many people have died with a
smile on their face, because they have made their lives worthwhile and
have succeeded in getting all they ever wanted. Why can´t life be
succesful till the very end? Not all people have died in loss of
everything.´
But we must clearly see that life is suffering, not because
´death taketh away all´, but because our attachment to
transient things makes us miserable rightnow at this very moment. We
can never be happy outside of Emptiness. Life is always suffering if we
become attached to something. Every object our mind forms is an
illusion. And it is precisely this clinging to these illusions that
make us so miserable. This is the important second Truth that must
clearly be seen. This is what the Buddha wanted to tell us. Life is not
suffering because of death, life is suffering because we think we are
in need. We will always be unhappy if we have a yearning and a craving.
Trying to get or to keep something is such a tension that it breaks the
thin line of happiness. Happiness can only be there when there is no
tension, no striving. Happiness is in its calmness so subtle that it
immediately becomes disturbed by any activity from our personal will.
The reason for attachment being the cause of suffering is the fact that
attachment creates a strong feeling of self. When we are attached to
something, when we think something belongs to us exclusively, we have
enlarged the feeling of us being a private and separate
´I´. My wife belongs to me.
My books, my knowledge, my fame
belongs to me. My money
belongs to me. All these
things, to which I am
attached, which I cannot let go, give me the feeling of being someone.
All these things shape my identity and make me the person I am. At
least, so I think, in my ignorance. But in fact this train of reasoning
is the biggest tragedy in life. It is so tragic because it is precisely
this feeling of being someone that makes me unhappy. This is the tragic
paradox of attachment.
3. The cessation of
suffering is attainable.
The Buddha realized in a flash of genius: I stand in the way of
happiness. Happiness is there. It is already given. Enlightenment is
the real natura rerum. But by
creating a false unnatural self I only
thwart happiness. So the only thing I have to do (and in fact the only
thing I can do) is to remove this feeling of ´I´. Then the
blockade is lifted. Then happiness can flow spontaneously. Seeing now
that my attachements are the cause of my perpetuated feeling of
`I´, it is of the utmost importance that I remove all these
attachements in life. If I want to be happy now, I must do it
now. Waiting for the liberation of death is absurd. Who will be there
to feel liberated? No, enlightenment can only be realized in the
here-now. It is a case of seeing it, understanding it, feeling it like
a grab by the nuts, and then.... letting go.
This is the Third Noble Truth: nirodha,
the letting go of all clinging,
aspiring and attachment. Nirodha is always a free possibility. Nirodha
means
cutting the emotional line that connects us to the outside world. We
have to sink deep down into the happiness of our inner Emptiness by
cutting the Gordian knot of all our suffering. The only reason we are
afraid of doing so is our lack of trust. We do not trust sunyata, our final Emptiness. It gives us
the creeps. But here the
compassion of the Buddha speaks: ´Trust me! I have reached the
ultimate happiness. I know that it is not my happiness. It is
everybody´s happiness. It is not a personal thing I have
realized. It is a scientific accomplishment. I have unraveled the Law,
the dharma, the natura rerum. I only show you the
way things are. It is
as true as two plus two equals four. So trust me on this one!´
But more important, far more important in fact, is, apart from
resigning all external bonds with the outside world, cutting the line
of our attachments with our inner world. For here, in the interiority
of our psyche, our cravings, our likings, our precious ideas and our
prejudices are our most subtle and fatal dangers. We can still be
attached to money, even after giving away everything to the poor. We
can still be attached to sex and emotional comfort, even after
divorcing our partner. Certain ideas may still have a hold on us,
even after we´ve stopped acting in accordance with them. It is
these our psychological attachments that we need to eradicate. They
obstruct us from reaching the liberation of Emptiness. Not the external
circumstances of our lives. We can in fact be enlightened, sitting like
Dagobert on a heap of gold coins. If, and only if, these gold coins are
totally indifferent to us.
But the attachment to our idea of having a self is the greatest
stumbling block of all. Nirodha of all attachements will greatly
diminish our feeling of self. But to reach the final liberation we also
have to ´blow out`, like the flame of a candle, this center of
self itself. This final nirodha will mean nirvana. But how to do this?
4. There is a Path
to end all suffering
In classical Greek the word ´sophrosyne´ means something
like a mixture of ´practicality´, ´soundness of
mind´ and ´wise temperance of conduct´. A person who
is ´sophroon´ judges every situation with wise discretion
and adjusts his conduct accordingly, matching his values anew to the
demands of every situation. The Buddha was in favor of
´sophrosyne´. In his eyes one always had to follow the
middle course and eschew all extremism of behavior. Blunt hedonism and
too strong indulgence were to be avoided, but so was ascetism and
prudery. The first course ensues a too predominant sway of the passions
over one´s life. The second course creates internal conflict
caused by unnatural suppression of the instincts and the emotions. Both
courses are a threath to our equanimity and calmness of mind. Vairagya,
the ending of attachment, can only be effected when such an extreme
life style is shunned.
In his Eightfold Path -right view, right intention, right speech, right
action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right
concentration- the Buddha tried to give some cognitive and ethical
guidelines that would make the ending of all sorrow possible. Most
important and foremost of all is to have a sound and well balanced
judgment. We have to have a right view. We are to see the things the
way they are, undistorted by our prejudices and our illusions. This
means we have to accept the Four Noble Truths as true.
Out of our insight in the truth of the Four Noble Truths develops the
right intention to free ourself and all beings from suffering. Our
sound judgment gives us this right intention in life. Once we know what
is true, we also know what we want. We now know that life is suffering.
We know the reasons. We want to end it. We want to be liberated. We
want all to be liberated. Because my happiness is interdependent with
the happiness of the whole world. For I´m not a separate being. I
belong to the whole.
This right view of things leads also to right ethical conduct. I
clearly have to understand that I can only liberate myself and my
fellows in a calm and peaceful environment. With such a right view in
mind, I will do everything I can to foster such an atmosphere. Right
ethical conduct - ie. right speech (such as refraining from telling
lies or gossips), right action (such as abstaining from aggression and
killing) and right livelihood (choosing work that helps ourselves and
the community we live in)- not only creates a peaceful and silent
heart (for when I do good, I never feel guilty about my own conduct)
but it does wonders also for the tranquility and balance of the
environment I live in. I need this tranquility and support from my
environment to make the last three courses of the Eightfold Path
possible.
So it is good to notice that the morality of Buddhism is not an end in
itself. For the Buddha these ethical guidelines were means to make the
soil ready for the grain of enlightenment to sprout. The Buddha was not
interested in moral laws as such. He was aware that these laws could
vary with each new circumstance. They only had a
relative truth in a relative world. But certain behavior, a certain
line of conduct helped to create the right atmosphere for meditation.
Meditation can only be fruitful when certain conditions are met.
That´s the reason the Eightfold Path starts with right view,
right intention, right speech, right action and right livelihood. They
are the condition for the last three prescriptions: we can only have a
right effort, a right mindfulness and a right concentration when we
understand why we have to, and when our ethical conduct is sound and
well balanced. Otherwise meditation will be a total failure.
So the Eightfold Path culminates after these preliminaries into the
effort to become totally focused on one point. This is right
meditation. In meditation we learn to concentrate on the Emptiness
behind all our thoughts and emotions. This one-pointedness can only be
achieved if we are mindful about the way our mind and body work. We
have to be mindful that the mind and the body are playing tricks on
consciousness. The mind is always conceptualizing and memorizing sense
impressions. These concepts create the illusion that the things the
concepts refer to have a certain fixed state of being. While the truth
is that nothing is fixed, but all things have an impermanent essence.
Also our bodily feelings are creating certain forms in our
consciousness. These forms of consciousness we either like or repel.
But we have to be mindful of the fact that these forms have control
over us, because we charge
them with power and meaning. We
attribute
some value to these forms. Then we say that somehow these values affect
us. And then these forms bring us into a certain emotional state. But
we ourselves are the ones who have made the connection between the
form, her value and the feeling of `I´. It would be more mindful
to separate value and form from one another. But the whole process of
identifying with and valuing such a form is entirely secondary and not
compulsory. We might as well leave the form for what it is: a fleeting
phenomenon of consciousness.
Thus right effort and right mindfulness lead to a one-pointed vision of
true Reality: ever blissful Emptiness. This is the goal of mankind.
This is the way to end all suffering.
think it is a denial of the intrinsic worth of living.
They feel that Bertrand Russell was right when he said that optimism
and pessimism are not true nor false in their own right, but that
philosophical statements like these only reflect the mood we´re
in. This first Truth only tells us something about the gloomy and
disillusioned perspective of the Buddha. It has no claims to being true
or false whatsoever.
will be snatched away from me, when puffing out my last
breath. But when I succeed, with all the forces of my will, in keeping
the things I want, right till my dying hour, I´ll be a lucky man.
When I die, I´ll be gone and there will be no one left to regret
the loss. Let us at least enjoy the things we have, as long as we have
them. This is not too much to ask, eh? Many people have died with a
smile on their face, because they have made their lives worthwhile and
have succeeded in getting all they ever wanted. Why can´t life be
succesful till the very end? Not all people have died in loss of
everything.´
final Emptiness. It gives us
the creeps. But here the
compassion of the Buddha speaks: ´Trust me! I have reached the
ultimate happiness. I know that it is not my happiness. It is
everybody´s happiness. It is not a personal thing I have
realized. It is a scientific accomplishment. I have unraveled the Law,
the dharma, the natura rerum. I only show you the
way things are. It is
as true as two plus two equals four. So trust me on this one!´
circumstance. They only had a
relative truth in a relative world. But certain behavior, a certain
line of conduct helped to create the right atmosphere for meditation.
Meditation can only be fruitful when certain conditions are met.
That´s the reason the Eightfold Path starts with right view,
right intention, right speech, right action and right livelihood. They
are the condition for the last three prescriptions: we can only have a
right effort, a right mindfulness and a right concentration when we
understand why we have to, and when our ethical conduct is sound and
well balanced. Otherwise meditation will be a total failure.
