The Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths that were so graciously bestowed to the human family holds the not-so-secret but incredibly challenging path to understanding a vital aspect of the human experience.
It is a lesson delivered with a quality many of us have experienced before, a new proposition that appears daunting and complicated to comprehend when first approached. When reading it for the first time it might as well be an alien language filled with concepts that seem
Then after persistence and practice, the destination is achieved and in hindsight, the perspective we held prior to this amazing revelation of the Four Noble Truths becomes the delusional or fictitious proposition. It is yet another upgrade in our operating system.
A wild phenomenon in our lives, how something can go from being incredibly difficult or hidden to being so blatantly obvious and elementary once it is grasped.
It is comparable to the first time we journey out into the world from our familiar home town, crossing borders and entering a foreign culture. It is like when we begin to play a musical instrument or pick up a new hobby.
After we engage and move through the process it becomes familiar and our fears, disbelief, or doubt begin to subside and are replaced with growing confidence.
It is also true that not everyone who picks up a musical instrument becomes proficient or someone who travels can handle the unfamiliar. The same is true for the Four Noble Truths
Many may achieve an intellectual insight, fewer will embody a living wisdom of its nature.
What I have been proposing in the Ego Humor journey is heavily influenced by the life-altering Four Noble Truths.
The Buddha is often regarded as the original psychoanalyst, Buddhism itself is not a religion but a philosophy on the nature of reality, the human experience.
This teaching is one of my favorites, it is profound.
The Four Noble Truths offered with my personal reflection.
1. Suffering (Dukkha)
You will see me continuously reach to the conversation around polarity. I am obsessed with the idea of polarity and how it plays in our material expression, our emotional state, and our overall perspective.
This focus on polarity is in relation to this teaching. As long as we reside in the form that we do there will be polarity. It will not cease to exist because it is how the framework of our reality is constructed.
We will continue to have feelings that are related to the notion of suffering for our entire lives. There will continue to be
Even when things are good we carry underlying awareness of impermanence. The ups and downs that are brought into existence through our attachment to the egoic story will be life long unless transcended. This I can say will be my journey, I welcome this truth and the discomfort it will cause. I will remain in practice & pursuit of the liberation but I am not ashamed of my position within the cyclic wheel.
Becoming aware of this truth, polarity and our immersion within it, is
2. The Cause Of Suffering (Samudāya)
In our discussions that explore the possibility a new perspective, we are making a conscious recognition of the fact that, as humans we are not a singular entity in form and function. We have an animal, ego, and eternal nature.
The animal and ego nature are the two that can, and do, experience the reality of suffering. It is a perceived sense of suffering that directly stems from the paradigm of polarity.
In order to suffer, there must be a value system in place that says this is desirable and this is not desirable. Without this polarity paradigm, there would be no suffering.
When we have desire or attachments we enter into this polarity paradigm and put our emotional well being on the spectrum. When we are experiencing what we want we are pleasant and when we are on the other end we are suffering in some capacity.
If a person holds the commonly held belief that the true self, “I”, is the ego character expression then they are constantly living in a state of flux with no sense of control. The ego determines its' state of happiness based on whether things are going as planned, as desired. This state of flux is generated from various inputs, one of which is the fact that nothing lasts, that change is sure to come.
As we age we also tend to discover that when a goal or desire we defined as a point of success or source of happiness is achieved, it often fades in time and must be replaced with another. Our achievements or goals tend to have a shelf life when it comes to sustaining a sense of joy.
In Buddhist or Indian philosophy the ego isn't our true essence, the same way we are breaking our human composition into three aspects of the animal, ego, and eternal. This insight is a powerful tool in our journey towards producing contentment for ourself and others.
By clinging to our identity of the ego we put ourselves in a position to remain on the wheel of cyclic expression. Attachments, desire, aversion, or avoidance all continue to hold us in this cycle of ups and downs, of suffering. The Indian and Buddhist traditions refer to this as Saṃsāra.
The journey to developing a sense of self outside of the ego isn't easy, it is often painful and challenging. In large part I contribute this to the fact that, in this process we must become whole, to witness that we are in fact all things.
Beginning to accept the “dark” nature of existence is something most avoid, with a strong sense of egoic morality I might add. This is a topic that deserves much attention and space to discuss, however, this is not the place or time.
Dissolving our sense of egoic self into It, the Eternal, is a death of sorts. Death, again, is something most people avoid with ferocity.
Part of my passion about this multi-polar, multi-centered, or multi-layered perspective is it allows all these spaces to remain without denying or attempting to eliminate anything out of sheer desire or attachment.
The conscious evolution process is a slow one, it isn't bound to time, but we experience time in our animal and ego lives and it serves to make space for it. I believe it is easier to develop our conscious awareness of our eternal self when we don't have the sense that it is either this or that. When we don't feel as though we must relinquish our ego and animal story to awaken to our eternal nature.
Our self centered natures are not bad, they are what they were intended to be. They were designed that way to serve a function and when we see the function and the story we can release the harshness, the anger. These “negative” feelings stem from ignorance of the big picture. This is, in part, why all the shaming & criticism people have about violence, destruction, pollution, or any perceived harmful action will never be remedied by treating it with the same sort of violence & harsh judgement. You can't abolish polarity, you can only come to see it's true nature.
The source of suffering is the attachment to the animal and ego story, hands down. At the same time we are capable of learning how to navigate that suffering and, if I may be so bold, construct societies that accommodate these truths in a way that minimizes the impact and offers methods for moving through these experiences with support and understanding.
This isn't possible, however, without a knowledge of the inner workings of our human composition prior to reshaping our societies.
The East calls our perceived reality Maya. It is also arguable that science has also proven this to be true with their relatively recent discoveries as well.
If you are not familiar with the concept of Maya look into it.
3. The End Of Suffering (Nirodha)
When we develop our conscious awareness of the nature of reality there is an opportunity to mitigate the sense of suffering. Suffering is truly a perceived sense. We only suffer when we perceive the moments of our life, of our story, as not being desirable.
Do I suffer? You better believe it, with a glorious intensity. Drive me to the edge, can I continue another day, kind of suffering.
Having knowledge of how reality is designed doesn't end the suffering. It does make for a more manageable position, we begin to see why and how it functions, the realization that it isn't personal but the nature of reality.
What excites me is the idea that this beautiful truth is grasped by a large number of people and then the opportunity to redesign our relationship to self and one another shifts. What we value and how we organize our societies can shift.
These shifts can be designed around the wisdom of this truth. We can elevate suffering on the animal and ego plane when we choose to live in alignment with the laws of eternity. When we humble ourselves to the design of reality versus trying to demand it be something else.
This again is the awakening process. If you go back to our talks of the perfect circle and the expressions from absolute unity to absolute division, the gradient of expression in between you will see this in that example. This also is from the wisdom traditions, something I have co-opted.
We are where we are in the spiraling evolution of consciousness. As a collective we are awakening, make no mistake we are bound as a group. This exceeds our human family. A single person, or small groups, can achieve the state of enlightenment and enter into nirvana. This is a beautiful truth, they can remove themselves from the cyclic nature suffering and if it is their path they must and should walk it.
For the rest of us, we have one another, it is only together through a revolution of conscious awareness that we can begin to witness the truth and begin elevate one another. We are dependent on one another to alleviate the suffering for the individual and the collective.
4. The Path To Cessation Of Suffering (Magga)
This is where the Eightfold Path is offered. The path is a valuable one and filled with wisdom.
I, however, have some internal struggle with the application of the path. This stems from existing in the realm of polarity and honoring the spiraling essence of conscious evolution.
We don't throw a light switch and go from absolute division to absolute unity. There is the gradient of expression that exists in between.
If it is someone's path to take up the life of the monastic then it shall be. I do believe that is not what life had intended to be expressed for everyone.
I am who I am because some people committed to consciousness exploration and others devoted themselves to technological discoveries. I wouldn't have the information I do if it wasn't for printing presses, the internet, freedom fighters overthrowing tyrannical systems of oppression.
The full spiral of expression must be honored and it is indeed the way the awakening process unfolds & enfolds.
We are where we are and I am somewhat pleased with that (awakening humor). I enjoy being lost in the illusion of ego and animal expression and I am also deeply pained by it.
My desire or attachment is for the continued progress of the collective awakening, that a more comprehensive awareness of the eternal truth is sought & achieved. That we use these truths to help guide us, shape our sense of self, our relationship to all on this globe, and reshape our societies within