The Buddhist Eightfold Path can end Suffering

At the weekend a young person, new to Buddhism, asked why Buddhists considered life was meant to be suffering. This was after hearing our Rinpoche talk of the Four Noble Truths.

This is a common question in the western world and stems from the distinctions Buddhism makes between the conventional reality, within which we live, and the ultimate reality of Emptiness (Which I am still promising to talk about later).

The confusion comes from the first two of the four Noble Truths as stated by Shakyamuni Buddha.

• Life means suffering
  
• Suffering has causes (Attachment and Aversion)
  

As the Four Noble Truths tend to be one of the first concepts that a newcomer will hear, it catapults the person straight into fundamental Buddhist philosophy with very little preparation.

To the unprepared western mind, the immediate implication is that to be a Buddhist, you will need to suffer and that is an inevitability of life – not a very attractive proposition!

To calm that runaway mind, I would like to make this suggestion:

What is being said is that, whether we know it or not, we are all experiencing suffering.

The first level is that of physical suffering from injury and illness, treatable by the medical profession.

The second level of suffering is in the Mind. In Buddhist philosophy that is treatable by becoming aware of how our rampaging Mind creates suffering. Through understanding we can dispel the ignorance that exists. This is when the promise of the next two Noble Truths cuts in:

• Cessation of suffering is attainable
  
• There is a Noble Eightfold Path to achieve the cessation of suffering
  

So for the newcomer the acceptance to embrace is that there is a way to overcome the suffering we experience. That way is through developing a clear understanding of how our Mind creates that suffering, why it does so and how to stop what is currently a never ending cycle, lifetime after lifetime. The path to that understanding is the Noble Eightfold Path.

Part of the development of that understanding is consideration of what is happiness, the opposite of suffering and our ultimate goal. It may come as a surprise, but the happiness we tend to recognise in our day to day lives is really a potential cause of suffering. How can that be? Just think how quickly happiness fades and even at times when we are experiencing happiness, we are fearful of seeing it dissipate – that is, we are suffering in the impermanency.

So in the Buddhist philosophy, happiness has a different meaning. It can be considered to be contentment with what we have, pleasurable or not.

I hope this encourages you to explore the deeper meaning of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. I would recommend you go to the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other revered teachers of the four main traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen Master, is also a good source of teachings for westerners, even though he is not of the Mahayana tradition. I found his "Heart of the Buddha's Teaching" particularly easy to read in my early days. While there are a multitude of entries on the web, they do not necessarily have the authenticity of the teachings as handed down through the recognised lineages. That is why I endeavour not to "teach", but rather to explore what is confusing and give guidance on where to go.

Thus ends this post. May whatever virtue or merit that derives from this posting be for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Yours until next time, Vajramate.