We see the Buddha as physician to the world .
. .
In the Four Noble Truths he gives his clinical observations
on the human condition, then his diagnosis,
then the prognosis, and finally the cure.
In the Four Noble Truths he gives his clinical observations
on the human condition, then his diagnosis,
then the prognosis, and finally the cure.
THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS
THERE ARE SO MANY “secrets” being revealed today.
There is the land-mark work The Secret. Although interesting
and inspiring, it certainly does not contain any hitherto unknown
esoteric secrets. Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow
Rich offers numerous secrets that, if you discover them, will
lead you to wealth and fulfillment. In recent history there have
been any number of books that offer the secret to success, the
secret to happiness, the secret to perfect weight, the secret to
raising brilliant children, the secret to brilliant career moves,
the secret to attracting a loving partner.
What is it with all these “secrets”? Are they
really secrets at all, or is the secret simply to throw out the
bait and see how many looking for a quick fix will grab the minnow?
My colleagues and I chuckle and wonder why something is called a
“secret” when it is something we have known and taught for decades.
A minister friend of mine says, “People can feel important and
special if they believe they are being let in on a secret that
others don’t know.” He’s right, in my opinion, and certainly book
publishersand authors (including me) will use whatever ploys and
hooks are needed to sell books and sell lots of them.
In Buddhism there are treasures, often called
“precious jewels,” but they are not necessarily secrets. In my
understanding all the hyperbole about secret teachings pales in the
light of the magnitude of the eternal truths contained within the
Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path, which are followed by
thousands of advanced teachings available to the true seeker.
In Tibetan Buddhism there are deep teachings given
only to advanced practitioners, usually monks and nuns, after years
and years of study. The master teacher decides if the student is
ready, and only then is this deep, complicated material taught.
That is not what The Lotus Still Blooms is attempting.
Although the teachings on these pages are not
swaddled in hype and the promise of a quick fix and easy riches,
they do, as the Buddha taught, point the way to awakening and
enlightenment. They outline a path to embrace and walk that begins
to answer life’s profound questions, not just for a moment but for
all time. Hopefully these lessons will inspire you as you begin to
practice and learn these eternal truths. Hopefully they will give
you tools and formulas that are applicable to absolutely every
aspect of life. They are not secrets but truths. They are
without equal. They are fabulous and thrilling. They are the Four
Noble Truths. They are noble because they are without equal. They
are truths because these four are perhaps the greatest summation of
the mystery enfolding human existence. They contain the diagnosis,
the prognosis and the cure for the human condition.
Here is the answer that was first taught 2,600
years ago by the Buddha. It still excites me to the extent that my
heart rejoices. I am enlivened to share these truths with you. They
are clearly and succinctly stated so that you may understand them
and perhaps change your life.
So let us begin at the beginning.
This beginning of Prince Siddhartha’s life-changing
journey would
When the Buddha was still known as Prince
Siddhartha, he journeyed for the first time outside the protection
of the palace walls and saw what is called “the four sights of the
Buddha.” What he saw was:
1. An elderly man. The Prince had no knowledge of
aging, be it a person, animal or flower, since he had been totally
sheltered from all perceived negativity by his father, the
King.
2. A sick man. He was stunned when he saw him and
asked his companion Chonna, “What is wrong?” Chonna explained, “It
is the law of nature that we are all prone to sickness. Poor, rich,
ignorant or wise, we are all creatures with bodies and so
susceptible to disease.”
3. A dead man. The Prince had never witnessed
death. Explained Chonna, “He who begins life must end it.”
4. An encounter with a monk who had a begging
bowl. Again Chonna, “He has understood that beauty will turn to
ugliness, youth into old age, life into death. And he is looking
for the eternal, looking for that which does not die.”
After achieving enlightenment, the Buddha rose from
under the bodhi tree and in a serene spot delivered his first
message to a small band of future followers. This has come to be
known as the Deer Park Sermon, where the first turning of the wheel
of the Dharma (the body of spiritual teaching) took place. This is
where the Buddha first taught what would become the essential
teachings of Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths.
Many have allowed the first Noble Truth, “Life is
suffering,” to frighten them and have been unwilling to look
further. When properly understood and taken within the context of
the entire four, it is not frightening, it is enlightening. Here
are the four:
1. Life is suffering.
2. The cause of suffering is our own grasping and
clinging, our attachments to our desires.
3. Cessation of suffering is possible.
4. Presentation of the Eight-fold Path that leads
to the end of suffering and promotes well-being.
In magical thinking we wish the good and
pleasurable aspects of life would last forever, just like the noble
prince’s father, the King. Nothing on our bodies would ever sag or
wrinkle, our children would always adore us, our parents would
never grow old and die. Nor would we grow old and die.
The entire subject of impermanence is often ignored
by metaphysicians, somehow caught up in the magical thinking
that—if we do not look at the unsettling aspects of life such as
disease, aging and death as the Buddha saw on his first journey
beyond the palace walls—undesired events will not occur in our
lives. This is not a psychologically sound way to approach life,
yet many are caught in such upside-down thinking.
The Buddhist teaching is that our attempt to avoid
all aspects of life is the cause of our suffering. By
acknowledging the full spectrum of our human experiences, we take
the crucial first step toward alleviating our suffering.
When we are willing to mature in our thinking, we
can then begin to understand that life is always in a state of
flux. Everything is always changing in the world. The only aspect
of life that does not change is the absolute—call it God or Christ
nature, your Buddha nature, the Holy Spirit. We must draw our
strength and find refuge from and in the Divine. All else is
impermanent.
I attended a ten-day retreat based on the teachings
of Sogyal Rinpoche and his magnificent book The Tibetan Book of
Living and Dying. The retreat was held at a lovely lodge in a
bucolic setting in Northern California. I personally had gone
through much effort and expense to get there, traveling more than
six thousand miles in the middle of a long-awaited, three-month
sabbatical.
On the first day of the retreat the approximately
350 retreatants learned that Sogyal Rinpoche had been hospitalized
as soon as he arrived in the United States from Europe. His senior
students would carry on in his stead. There was much
disappointment, myself included, but surely he, a Rinpoche and
recognized spiritual master, would be well quickly and released
from the hospital to assume his role as leader and teacher.
But that did not happen. He was released after
several days, but he was in need of rest and recuperation. He
telephoned the retreatants and spoke very mindfully on impermanence
and the nature of illness. He implied that even the great ones can
get sick. He said, “Illness is a kind of warning, a reminder. We
believe we have time, we believe we have time, we believe we have
time—and then we have no time.” He was living for us all in what he
called “the ever-present theme of impermanence.”
When we embrace the universality of impermanence,
we are then no longer thrown off our pins when it stops to pay a
call in our life or in the life of a loved one. Do you sometimes
look in the mirror and see your mother’s face looking back at you?
That’s impermanence. Can you barely get out of bed in the morning
because of all your many aches and pains? That’s impermanence. A
child gets sick and dies. That’s impermanence. A young soldier does
not return from Iraq. That’s impermanence. The most glorious
vacation comes to an end. That’s impermanence. You now live in an
“empty nest” where your nuclear family once lived. That’s
impermanence. The examples are endless, and each one causes us to
suffer to the degree that we are attached.
I am definitely one for taking the best care that
we can of our physical selves. But no matter what we do, we are—as
the years roll by—getting older, having a sickness or two or more,
perhaps experiencing an accident or two. And each one of us is
going to die, as well as everyone you love. Cling to this not
happening and you will just suffer all the more.
THE FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH
Remember, clinical observation of the Four Noble
Truths can be summed up as the diagnosis, the prognosis, the cure,
and engaging in the cure. Buddha did not teach the extinction of
all desire (trishna). Our desire can become zeal, enthusiasm toward
our spiritual awakening. Nothing is overcome (i.e., desire) by
crushing it, only by transforming it. The Tibetan Buddhist scholar
Dr. Robert Thurman said, “We can each become a noble person, and
all of us are destined to do so.”
I had a conversation on wanting good and pleasant
experiences in my life with my Hawaiian cardiologist, Dr. Hinson
Chun, a Tibetan Buddhist. He said, “Of course we must have pure
‘desire’ to ever make progress on the Eight-fold Path.” When we
engage in the cure, we move into the Eight-fold Path. It is how we
can systematically cease doing what causes us to suffer and embrace
the eight steps that lead to a noble life and happiness.