The Buddha’s World of Learning
The Four Noble Truths
and the Eightfold Path
Young Prince Siddhartha “abandoned all things hard to
abandon, his treasures, wife and child, his country and his palace, to give
all, his head, eyes, and brain to people as alms.” This didn’t happen overnight.
In the beginning, his overall purpose to end human suffering, he totally
abandoned a normal life, wandering in forests seeking the way to enlightenment
with five ascetics, Ajñata Kaundinya, Ashvajit, Vashpa, Mahanaman, and Bhadrika.
(No need to remember their names, I never have—let’s just call them, the
seeking Siddhartha’s five buddies who sought enlightenment through various
means of self-torture.)
How did Siddhartha escape? Significantly because one day
he overheard a man instructing his pupil on how to tune his harp, and more
significantly, Siddhartha’s mind was open to embracing its lesson.
“If the strings are stretched tuned too tight, or if the
strings are stretched too loose, it will not play.”
Hearing this, Siddhartha accepted a bowl of rice from a
village girl, forsaking his ascetic vows, and his buddies were shocked. He
called out to them, “The path to enlightenment is in the middle way, beyond
extremes.”
Siddhartha becomes in that moment, “Bodhisattva
Siddhartha” in search of Perfect Enlightenment.
(Here I’m accepting the time-sequence presented in
Bertolucci’s film, “Little Buddha.”)
Reaching at last the “training place of Perfect Enlightenment”–the
Bodhi tree–there attaining Perfect
Enlightenment, and (in the Lotus Sutra) seeing “creatures in the six states of
existence, poor and without happiness and wisdom, in the dangerous path of
mortality, in continuous unending misery, firmly fettered by the five desires like
the yak caring for its tail, smothered by greed and infatuation, blinded and
seeing nothing; seeking not the Law to end sufferings, but deeply falling into
heresies, and seeking by suffering to be rid of suffering—for the sake of all
these creatures, my heart is stirred with great pity.
“When I first sat on the wisdom throne, looking at that
tree and walking about it during thrice seven days, I pondered such matters as
these—the wisdom which I have obtained is wonderful and supreme, but all
creatures are dull in their capacities, pleasure-attached and blind with
ignorance. Such classes of beings as these I saw, how can they be saved?
“Having finished pondering this matter, I instantly went
to Varañasi [Benares], [to teach] the
nirvana-nature of all existence, which is inexpressible.”
And there the Buddha found (in Deer Park) his old buddies, the five
bhikshus, and by tactful ability preached to them. This is called the first
teaching of the Law.
The Four Noble Truths:
A long way getting around to these first teachings of the
Buddha, but I believe important to view them in the context of when it was
taught, and how derived from something the Buddha with open mind open accepted,
not adverse to learning something new, and a “truth” awakened to before his
enlightenment – the teaching of the middle way, as in the following Eightfold
Path.
What are the Four Noble Truths? Here we describe them
from the perspective of “greater vehicle” (Mahayana) teachings:
1 – All existence entails suffering. 2 – Suffering is caused by ignorance which gives
rise to craving and illusion. 3 – There is an end to suffering, and this
state of no suffering is called nirvana. 4 – Nirvana is attained through the practice of the Eightfold Path.
None of these “four truths” should be considered
separately – they are fluid in their practice, and must extend to the fourth – practice of the Eightfold Path. Without
following the Eightfold Path, suffering’s end cannot be achieved.
The Eightfold Path: - We return first to the parable of the harp – finding
the middle way between extremes. This is important because the Eightfold Paths
are stated as “right” paths suggesting “wrong” paths, but there is no dualistic “right and wrong” in the teachings of the
Buddha. (How long I’ve waited to get that off my chest!) So it’s vital to view
and hopefully to accept this basic teaching as “following the middle course”
always. And certainly one may apply different meanings in considering them, as one
should, resonating from one’s own individual experience and circumstance.
The middle way of the Eightfold Path:
Right view/ Right thinking / Right speech / Right action
/Right living / Right endeavor / Right memory / Right meditation.
At the time of this first teaching, it was some forty
years, before the Buddha decided the time had come to teach the “One Vehicle” of
the Lotus Sutra, which is prompted by those who are seeking it:
When I saw the Buddha-sons-and-daughters
bent on seeking the buddha-way,
in countless thousands and countless myriads,
all with reverent hearts,
draw near to the Buddha;
they had already heard from the enlightened ones
the Law which they tactfully explained.
Then I conceived this thought:
The reason why the Tathagata appears
is for preaching the Buddha-wisdom;
now is the very time.
Indeed, now in today’s world, now is the very time.
