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The Four Noble Truths
Following this way you shall make an end to suffering. -Shakyamuni
Buddha
"Awakening," as the Chinese usually refer to becoming enlightened,
may be usefully understood as seeing Ultimate Reality. But how does
one wake up? This is where the Buddha's core teaching becomes
important. It is said that Shakyamuni's actually enlightenment under
the bodhi tree consisted in his deep intuitive grasp of the four
noble truths.
1. There is suffering in the world;
2. Suffering is caused by desire, including desire for love, wealth,
fame, and even life itself;
3. Suffering can be eliminated in the individual through the
elimination of desire; and
4. The way to eliminate desire is through destruction of the ego,
via the eightfold path and eventual enlightenment.
Many westerners criticize Buddhism for being a very negative,
pessimistic religion. To wit, the first noble truth say that life is
filled with suffering. But the Sanskrit word for suffering, "duhkha,"
is a much more inclusive term. The meaning of "duhkha" includes the
concepts of suffering, imperfection, unsatifactoriness, frustration,
and impermanence. So it isn't that the Buddha was pessimistic, but
neither was he optimistic. The Buddha was a realist. Shakyamuni
simplifies the four noble truths by saying: if you learn to free
yourself from desire you free yourself completely. To a Buddhist,
fear of death equates to desire not to lost life. Overcome that
desire and fear of death dissipates like smoke in the wind.
Shaolin tried to
acknowledge the breadth of the Dharma by encouraging education and
curiosity to combat ignorance, understanding and compassion to
combat anger, equanimity and renunciation to combat craving.
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