by Youngbear Roth

Created on: May 23, 2010   Last Updated: November 09, 2010

Following Gautama Buddha's enlightenment he expounded on 'The Four Noble Truths' at the Benares discourse. 'The Four Noble Truths' constitute Buddha's enlightenment experience. The spirit - if not letter[i]- of these truths form the esoteric sustaining interior perception that so much of Buddhism's exoteric practices express. In experiencing the enlightenment of 'The Four Noble Truths', Buddha yoked with, or gained the Yoga awareness of highest self - that the mundane finite and the divine infinite are inclusive, and when we fail to realize and live this Yoga, we do not harmonize with 'dharma' (universal truth or true work).  Living in disharmony, we cannot liberate enstasis from the condition of human suffering.

'The Four Noble Truths' vary insignificantly from one translation to another and may be quickly summarized as:

1.The truth of suffering.
2.The truth of the origin of suffering.
3.The truth of the cessation of suffering.
4.The truth of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering.

While translations may vary insignificantly, interpretation can vary widely. Buddha was a pragmatic individual by nature. He never asked that anyone accept his interpretation of the aware and enlightened living experience at face value. Many times he suggested that his vision be tried on for size with one's practical experience as being the best teacher.  Valid and sincere Yoga teachers take this approach.

The following is my interpretation of 'The Four Noble Truths', and the best I can say is, at the age of fifty-eight, with fifty years in yoga, and over twenty of those years devoted to Zen Buddhism and Philosophical Taoism, it works for me.

First, life flows as a beautiful but often extremely difficult series of adventures. When one takes a moment to achieve clarity and a true vision of how the destiny stream flows then we live in harmony with Tao or The Way. To meditate on clarity in the eye of the tempest takes disciplined commitment and practice and an honest forbearance of one's imperfections. To approach life otherwise, is to swim upstream; this, at best, is disharmonious. This is the truth of suffering.

How does one achieve the ability to witness with clarity in the eye of the tempest? We must be willing to throw to the wind our attachment for the very situation that we are struggling to maintain. Passionate attachments to proving one's position is correct, or exacting payment in any form as an expectation for life-works performed are the

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