by Luciphers Handler

Created on: March 03, 2007   Last Updated: March 27, 2007

This is a continuation of my blogs on Buddhism. I wanted to discuss something that is more widely known in Buddhism. My previous blog discussed the Four Seals of Dharma. They were what Buddha realized that made him a Buddha and created Buddhism. After he became a Buddha, he realized four truths. In Buddhism we call these the Four Noble Truths.

The Four Noble Truths are:

I. Life is suffering.

II. The origins of suffering are selfish desire and attachment.

III. There is a way to stop suffering.

IV. This way is the Eightfold Path.

a) Right Understanding
b) Right Thinking
c) Right Speech
d) Right Attitude
e) Right Livelihood
f) Right Effort
g) Right Mindfulness
h) Right Concentration

Now let us discuss these in more detail. Most of our discussion will involve the Eightfold Path, but we will briefly go over the first three concepts.

LIFE IS SUFFERING. In my previous blog, I discussed how emotions are pain. If you haven't read it yet, please do so as I do not plan on repeating myself here. Emotions are a part of us. They are our reactions to the world. Life is a struggle. Whether a struggle to survive, to succeed or find something more; we struggle to achieve our goals. This struggle causes suffering. Since we struggle with life and our reactions to life (emotions) cause pain; life is suffering.

THE ORIGINS OF SUFFERING ARE SELFISH DESIRE AND ATTACHMENT. Desire causes suffering because we desire what we don't have. Once we obtain what we desire, we desire more. This creates a never ending cycle. Attachment causes suffering because once we achieve our desire, we become afraid of losing it and this creates worry, which is a form of suffering. So selfish desire and attachment cause suffering because we desire what we don't have, once we obtain our desire, we then become afraid of losing it and/or we also end up desiring more. So we cause our own suffering.

THERE IS A WAY TO STOP SUFFERING. Since we cause our own suffering, we can stop this same suffering.

THIS WAY IS THE EIGHTFOLD PATH. By understanding and following the Eightfold Path, we can stop our own suffering. The eight steps can be divided into three categories: wisdom, ethical/moral behavior and mental discipline. Right Understanding and Right Thought fall under wisdom. Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood fall under ethical/moral behavior. Right effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, fall under mental discipline.

RIGHT UNDERSTANDING is also known as Right View. This concept means to keep ourselves

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