Although I’m still deep in the bowels (emphasis on bowels) of my Buddhism research, I’ve managed to glean one thing: Buddhist thought can be boiled down to four ideas, known as the Four Noble Truths. So, here they are.
1. Life is suffering.
Because we are trapped in a cycle of life and death and reincarnation, life is inherently painful. We live, we learn, we die, and we start all over again. And it sucks.
2. The cause of suffering is craving and attachment.
We become attached and cling to the physical world—we crave food, money, power, love, sex. But we can never get enough of any of these things to ever feel satisfied, so the craving never ends unless we can somehow find a way to let it go.
3. We can overcome craving and attachment.
We have a choice about whether to suffer. As Gary Gach writes, “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. It’s your call. You can drop it. Give it up. Let it go. Let it be. This state of liberation is nirvana. . . . The fires (of delusion—fear, anger, and greed) will burn out and die, if no longer fed.”
My initial reaction to that is “Bull! Bull! Bull!”, but I’ll take a cue from Buddhism and just let it go. For now.
4. The way to overcome suffering, craving, and attachment is the Eightfold Path:
Right understanding/right view
Right purpose/right thought
Right speech
Right conduct/right action
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right alertness/right mindfulness
Right concentration
We’ll have to get into these eight “rights” the next time, because the mere fact that I can’t even find two books that use the exact same eight terms to delineate the Eightfold Path has made me so angry, I can’t bear to write any more today.
I may not be so good at this “letting go” crap. My anger seems to be my best friend.
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