The 4 Noble Truths of Buddha And The Eight Fold Path

Wednesday Morning Feb 13th 2008
The 4 Noble Truths of Buddha and the 8 Fold Path
The whole of Buddha’s teaching is based on the 4 Noble Truths and the 8 fold path. The first is right view, which is to understand that there is only suffering in this world. It is just like Vedantic philosophy which talks about right discrimination. What is right discrimination? It is to understand that life in this world is nothing but pain and suffering. Everything in this world changes; We live in a world of change. Nothing is permanent; So that helps you to develop right discrimination. When you think about this world, people just pursue pleasure. In the pursue of pleasure there is always the possibility of you becoming enslaved by the senses, addicted to pleasure. And even while you are enjoying the pleasure there is the anxiety of losing it. No matter how much pleasure you get, you always need more to fill the void within you. If you observe the world, you see that people are always in that state of constant struggle to fill that void, That insatiable hunger for fullness, completeness. So the man of wisdom understands that there is only suffering, sickness, disease, old age, death, and so on. The next Truth is that there is that relentless hunger to fill the void, so you pursue one dream after another in the hope of gaining satisfaction, fullness, so you fulfill one desire after the other, running after a mirage, hoping that you are going to be satisfied, not knowing that what you are searching is your very own self. The third Noble truth is there is a way to end this suffering. How do you end this suffering? By right discrimination, developing dispassion for this world, shattering all of your delusions. So the end of suffering comes when there is knowledge, self knowledge. Knowing that everything in this world is transient. That is why I always say that Yoga is the shattering of delusions and illusions. But who is ready for that? People’s mind is so feeble, the moment you correct them no matter how simple the thing is, their ego comes up, puts up the barrier, so it sabotages any further progress on the spiritual path, any further growth. Every body wants to be Guru, they learn a little, and then they just want to go and parade their ego. The first thing they do is find faults with the Guru, that gives them a license to parade. In this world of change, of duality, every embodied being, if you search you will find negative things, there is no limit. Behind every saint is a sinner. So in the shattering of delusions you have to be joyful, happy, ready to give up the gross for the subtle. Continuasly continue refining. On all levels. At every stage in you life you will find that delusions are being shattered. But that shouldn’t bring sadness, it should bring joyfulness. You should feel happy. Every time my Guru corrected me I felt happy. That doesn’t mean that every time I would present myself to him like a fool so that he would correct me and I would feel happy. Everytime he corrects me I make sure that I don’t Make that mistake again, continue to refine. So there is no limit to refining. You learn to play the Tabla, if whatever I show you is all, if you are not ready to learn and refine then you are fool. Same thing in life, always be willing to sacrifice what you know as truth today for higher truth tomorrow. That which you knew as truth yesterday for higher truth today. And that should bring joyfulness, you should feel expansiveness, you should be happy that you are growing.

The fourth noble truth is that there is a way to end this suffering, that is by following the eight fold path. By following the eight fold path you will be able to shatter all the delusions, rise above all the ignorance.
That starts with right thinking. My Guru used to say, “Thinking good, doing good, getting good.” It all starts from your thoughts, what you think. Right thought is according to your state of consciousness, that is what you think. Your thoughts are according to your samkaras, you may think it is right for you to steal and so on. In order to cultivate noble thoughts, right thoughts, you need right association. Because according to your samskaras, that is what you think about. If you are a pothead, all you think about is smoking joints, where to get it, how to get it and so on. Right association means associating with people who seek truth, self knowledge, righteous people, spiritual people. Yogis, saints, you Guru, this is the highest association.
Right speech, your speech begins with your thoughts, whatever words are formulated verbally went through thought process. Right speech, we call it austerity of speech. To be able to speak the truth, to say what is beneficial and not harmful, to be kind, to uplift consciousness of people and so on.
Right action, if you cant think noble thoughts, your speech will not be right, you actions stem from your thoughts. It is putting your thoughts in action. If your thoughts are noble, your actions will be noble. Thinking good, doing good, getting good. Then you have the golden rule, they say: “Do no harm.” Non injury. Ahimsa. So in order for you to live your life in a way that you practice ahimsa, there has to be love and compassion in your heart for the humanity and for creation. So not to injure in thoughts, words or deeds means that you cultivate that divine vision, where you can see the divine in every aspect of creation. First you start with your family members and so on. Then you extend that awareness even to animals, trees and so on. How can you harm the tree when it is providing so much for you? You want to nourish it, take care of it.
Right livelihood. You could see how all this is like the Yamas and Niyamas. So right livelihood is dedicating the fruits of your actions to God. Being involved in activity that does not polute your mind, doenst create stress. If you are involved in cheating robbing, stealing that will agitate your mind. It is not condusive to spiritual growth. You may get money, but you will aquire lust and greed and hatred and jealousy and envy and fear. That is what will go with you, all your wealth, that stays here. So in the pusuit of success you should not transgress Dharma. So your livelihood should be something that helps you to grow spiritually, helps free you from the disease of the mind, lust, greed, hatred, jealousy and so on. Most people’s envolvement in the world, seeking livelihood is really the source of their misery, the source of the pollution of their mind. So you have to be discriminative, have right discrimination. You spend most of your life making your livelihood, providing for yourself, for your family, most of your life is sopent like that, so it should be something that helps you grow. You should understand how to live your life in a way that every moment serves as a means for your upliftment.
Right Effort. Every one is involved in activity, but most times people dissipate their energy, without proper understanding and knowledge, they are just spinning their wheels. The mind is not focused,

concentrated, attention is not there. Only worrying about the past, hankering about future results and so on. So all these efforts, but they are just busy bodies, appears as if you are doing something but nothing is achieved, or very little. Yoga is perfection in action. You should always seek how to improve whatever you are doing. Right action; Before you involve in action you should know what you are doing, how you are doing, you should seek knowledge and proper understanding. So that is right effort.
Right Mindfulness; you see how people go about their life without any awareness, like sleep walking, no awareness of even their body. Everything they do is so mechanical, just following blindly, like sheep. So, right mindfulness is developing awareness. People are not even aware of the condition of their body. They don’t even know what proper diet is. If they experience some pain and ackes, they just take painkillers, they don’t want to know. Mindfulness, be aware. You become aware of your breath, of your mind, all of this is reflected in your actions and so on. Right discrimination is cultivated. Everything you are doing you should be aware of; you should be aware of your enviornment, of your surroundings, how is it helping you to grow, how does it contribute to your welfare, not just follow blindly what everybody tells you or what everybody is doing. Observe, observe the world, observe people, yourself, observe the world in relationship to yourself, to your mind. People are only mindful of pleasure; what is it that will give you the most pleasure with the least amount of effort.
Right concentration; every body is involved in concentration, developing concentration, focusing the mind, but on what?! On the woman’s Butt! That is where people attention is, they concentrate on how to manipulate people, how to steal their money, cheat, rob… So what ever your attention is on, wherever your concentration is, that is what molds your thoughts, your thinking, your actions and karma. So you could see how it is all related. Right thinking comes from right concentration, right action comes from right thinking; speech and all of that is related to what your interest is. That will determine what your actions will be, your effort and so on.
So you could see how if you pay attention to these simple rules, guidelines, it helps you to live a life in accordance with Dharma. It continues to help you to shatter your delusions, to live with proper awareness and understanding, so that you continually grow and evolve. That is what Yoga is, what spirituality is about.
People are involved so much in debating, this religion, that religion. If you realy understand Yoga, Vedanta philosophy, you see sameness. All Rishis, all the saints teach the same thing; if they are enlightened beings the path towards liberation, enlightenment is the same. The instructions are very simple, not complicated. All the teachings, all the practices all the disciplines should help you free the mind from the defects of Mala, Vikshepa and Avarna. If it is not doing that, then it is not Yoga, it is not spirituality. Most people’s relationship with religion just creates more delusion, more stupidity, more ignorance. Instead of being the means towards liberation and freedom it is the means to more bondage.