1. The Noble Truth of Suffering... The First Noble Truth is suffering or dukkha. This includes physical, emotional and mental forms of suffering but can also be interpreted more widely as a feeling of ‘dissatisfaction’. Any happiness that we have in life will not last forever – old age, sickness and inevitably death cannot be avoided. In the scriptures, suffering is defined according to the following categories: Birth, Decay, Death, Sorrow, Lamentation, Pain, Grief and Despair. It is also defined as not getting what one desires.
2. The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering... The Second Noble Truth points to the origin of suffering, namely craving or tanha (literally ‘thirst’). At its most simple this relates to our constant craving for what is pleasurable in what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch and think. Our lives are constantly driven by our desire for pleasant sensations. When such pleasant sensations are denied us, as they inevitably are from time to time, then we feel frustrated, dissatisfied - we suffer. There can be more subtle forms of craving – a desire for fame, wealth, recognition – the list is endless.
3. The Noble Truth of the Extinction of Suffering... The Third Noble Truth refers to Nibbana in which craving has faded completely and thereby suffering too. It is an irrevocable ‘state’ of peace, in which greed, hatred and delusion have completely disappeared. By attaining to it, no more kamma is produced and the round of rebirths comes to an end.
4. The Noble Truth that leads to the Extinction of Suffering... The Fourth Noble Truth provides a practical pathway to the realization of Nibbana in the form of the Noble Eightfold Path. This consists of eight factors: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
What is the Noble Eightfold Path? ... This is the path to Nibbana as outlined by the Buddha. It offers a framework for the development of wisdom, morality and concentration, all of which are essential for spiritual progress: 1. Right Understanding - This entails an understanding of the Four Noble Truths and the other teachings of the Buddha.
2. Right Thought - To have right thought is to be free of sense desire, ill-will or cruelty and to possess thoughts of detachment, loving-kindness and compassion.
3. Right Speech - Right Speech comprises abstaining from lying, gossiping, and using harsh language.
4. Right Action - Right Action is abstaining from killing, stealing and from unlawful sexual intercourse. 5. Right Livelihood - Occupations that necessitate the breaking the five precepts are prohibited. For example, occupations that involve killing (whether animals or humans), sexual misconduct, deceit, taking intoxicating drinks or drugs. For example, trading in arms or prostitution.
6. Right Effort - There are four aspects to this: the effort to avoid the arising of evil, the effort to overcome evil, the effort to develop wholesome states and the effort to maintain wholesome states.
7. Right Mindfulness - This encompasses - The Four Foundations of Mindfulness. This involves being mindful of 1. the body and bodily processes 2. feelings 3. states of mind 4. thoughts, ideas, Buddhist teachings such as the Four Noble Truths.
8. Right Concentration - The final factor focuses on developing meditative concentration leading to the eradication of the five hindrances and the experience of the four jhanas.
Right Understanding and Right Thought aim to cultivate wisdom, Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood relate to morality, and Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration are conducive to Concentration.
The Five Precepts... Part of the spiritual path in Buddhism involves the following moral rules or 'precepts'. These are the basic moral guidelines that laid down by the Buddha. For the monk, in addition to 227 or so monastic rules, there are ten precepts. For the lay person, however, there are only five, though on certain days, these may be increased to eight or ten. The five precepts are:
1. I undertake to abstain from killing living beings. 2. I undertake to abstain from taking what is not given. 3. I undertake to abstain from sexual misconduct. 4. I undertake to abstain from false speech.
5. I undertake to abstain from intoxicating drugs or drink.
The nature of multiplicity is non-dual and things in themselves are pure and simple; being here and now is thought-free and it shines out in all forms, always all good; it is already perfect! The disease of uptight striving expunged, spontaneity is as it is. Turned into prose, based on the "Dochu" commentary, it says: All phenomenal appearances, the entire phantasmagoria of the six senses, the diverse multiplicity of existence, in reality is without duality. Even if we examine its parts in the laboratory of the mind, what is seemingly concrete in its nature is illusive and indeterminate. There is nothing to get hold of. There is no way to express it. The such-ness of things, their actuality, left just as they are, is beyond thought and inconceivable. That is the here and now. Yet diversity is manifestly apparent and this is the undiscriminating all-inclusive sphere of the all-good Buddha Samantabhadra. Total perfection has always been a fact and there has never been anything to do to actuate this immaculate completeness. All endeavors are redundant and naturally transcended. What remains is spontaneity and that is always present.
Chogyel Namkhai Norbu and Adriano Clemente rendered the "Six Vajra Verses" like this: in "The Supreme Source:" The nature of the variety of phenomena is non-dual yet each phenomena is beyond the limits of the mind. The authentic condition as it is does not become a concept yet it manifests totally in form, always good. All being already perfect, overcome the sickness of effort and remain naturally in self-perfection: this is contemplation.
Chogyel Namkhai Norbu's commentary divides the six verses into three verses:
-The first couplet describes the ground of being and the view, relating to the Mind Series of instruction and to Garab Dorje's first Incisive Precept, which is introduction to the nature of mind.
· The second couplet describes the path, the nature of meditation, relating to the pace Series of instruction and Garab Dorje's second incisive precept, which is conviction of the reflexive function of liberation.
· The third couplet describes the product, which does not differ from the ground and relates to the Secret Precept Series and to Garab Dorje's third incisive precept, which is confidence in the process.
Based on Chogyel Namkhai Norbu's commentary, John Reynolds (Vajranath), Nyingma scholar and yogi, made this discursive translation: Even though the nature of the diversity (of all phenomena) is without any duality, in the terms of the individuality of the things themselves, they are free of any conceptual elaborations.
Even though there exists no thought or conception of what is called the state of being just as it is, these various appearances, which are created, are but manifestations of Samantabhadra. Since everything is complete in itself, one comes to abandon the illness of efforts and thus one continues spontaneously in the calm state of contemplation. Professor Samten Karmay found a version of the text amongst the cache of material that Sir Aurel Stein found in Tun Huang and which was concealed in the tenth century, thus validating its age and form His rendering is this:
All the varieties of phenomenal existence as a whole do not in reality differ one from another. Individually also they are beyond conceptualization. Although as "such-ness" there is no mental discursiveness (with regard to them) Kun-tu bzang po shines forth in all forms. Abandon all the malady of striving, for one has already acquired it all. One leaves it as it is with spontaneity. The first Tibetan Dzogchen master, Pagor Vairochana, received the "Six Vajra Verses" in the eighth century from Shri Singha, his Indian Guru, in the land of Uddiyana. This text was amongst the first translations he made at King Trisong Detsen's court at Samye in Tibet. It is considered the root transmission text of the Mind Series of Dzokchen instruction and is the first in the list of the eighteen transmission texts of the Mind Series tantras. The copy of it found amongst the stash of Tun Huang manuscripts hidden in the tenth century and recovered earlier this century, authenticates its age and form. Here is the Tibetan text rendered into English: OM SWASTI! (i.e. it is about the non-duality in the ground, the path, and the fruition. It shows that everything is consistent. The non-duality means the Union of existence and non-existence in the ground, or of appearances and emptiness, or of the world and of the mind...It means the inseparability of upaya and prajña, the two accumulations, in the path; or the Union of shamatha and vipashyana in the perfection of meditation. And it means the Union of the Two Truths in the fruition.)
He could no longer repress the resolve he felt to go out in search of a solution to the four sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death.
Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical founder of Buddhism, was born in India 3,000 years ago. There are various opinions concerning the exact dates of his birth and death, but according to Buddhist tradition, he is said to have been born April 8, 1029 BC and died on February 15, 949 BC, although other Buddhist scholars place his birth five hundred years later. No definite conclusion has been reached.
Shakyamuni Buddha was the son of Shuddhodana, the king of the Shakyas, a small tribe whose kingdom was located in the foothills of the Himalayas south of what is now central Nepal fifteen miles from Kapilavastu. Shakya of Shakyamuni is taken from the name of this tribe and muni means sage or saint. His family name was Gautama (Best Cow) and his given name was Siddhartha (Goal Achieved) though some scholars say this is a title bestowed on him by later Buddhists in honor of the enlightenment he attained.
Shakyamuni was said to have been born in the Lumbini Gardens, located in what is now the village of Paderia in southern Nepal. This was a fertile and peaceful land where the inhabitants led an agricultural life. Rice harvesting took place in this area and is alluded to by his father's name, Shuddhodana, which means "pure milk-rice."
Seven days after his birth, his mother, Maya, died and he was raised by his mother's younger sister Mahaprajapati. His mother's death may have been a great influence upon the delicate youth who later became very perplexed by the question of mortality. His father took good care of his introspective, quiet-mannered son, and gave him special training in literature and the martial arts.
As a boy, Shakyamuni was deliberately shielded from the many realities of life, having been brought up amid the pleasures of the royal palace. It was natural for his family to expect that he would take over as the leader of his tribe and succeed his father. All was not peaceful in Kapilavastu though, in spite of the agricultural nature of Shakyamuni's homeland. Kapilavastu suffered from turbulent political conditions. It was not a completely independent country but bound to give tribute to the neighboring power, Kosala. Seeing the precarious state of his small and powerless tribe, Shakyamuni, as the prince of his declining clan, was expected to fulfill the clan's great need for leadership.
Although his family had such expectations for him, Shakyamuni was extremely introspective and quiet as a youth, possessing a sharp sense of justice, seeking the answers to life's perplexing questions. It is said that he ventured out of the palace compounds on a number of occasions as a youth and each time was confronted with the sufferings of life. On one such occasion he came upon a very old man. On another venture he met a sick man, frail and burning with fever. On yet another journey, he was impressed when he met a wandering monk (bhiksu) who had renounced the world to lead an austere life in search of spiritual enlightenment. And again on another occasion he saw a person dead in the street. These events are recounted in the Buddhist scriptures as the four meetings. He was said to have been deeply moved by these confrontations with human suffering.
Knowing his son's tendency toward deep introspection and his desire to seek a spiritual path, his father sought to tie him down to life within the confines of the palace and their land. Marriage seemed a way to dissuade the young prince from pursuing the life of an ascetic, so at the age of sixteen, the young prince married the beautiful Yashodhara who bore him a son, Rahula.
Following the birth of his son, Shakyamuni could no longer repress the resolve he felt to abandon the secular world and go out in search of a solution to the four inescapable sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death.
According to Buddhist tradition in China and Japan, Siddhartha renounced secular life and his princely status at the age of nineteen and began living a religious life. Having left the palace of the Shakyas at Kapilavastu he traveled to Rajagriha, the capital of the kingdom of Magadha, where he studied with various ascetics. Among those he encountered were six leading figures who had begun to challenge the established value system of Brahmanism. After following their disciplines, he still could not find the answers to his questions. He then left Rajagriha and proceeded to the bank of the Nairanjana River near the village of Uruvilva, where he began to practice various austerities in the company of other ascetics- He subjected himself to disciplines of extreme severity, surpassing the efforts of his companions, trying to reach emancipation through self-mortification, but after six years he rejected these practices as well. To restore his strength from having fasted for such a long time he accepted milk curds offered to him by Sujata, a girl of the village. Then, near the town of Gaya, he sat under a pipal tree and entered meditation. There he attained enlightenment at the age of thirty The pipal tree was later called the bodhi tree because Shakyamuni gained bodhi or enlightenment under this tree, and the site itself came to be called Buddhagaya.
After his awakening, Shakyamuni remained for a while beneath the Bodhi tree rejoicing in his emancipation. Shakyamuni contemplated how he should communicate his realization to others. It is said he questioned whether or not he should attempt to teach others what he had achieved. He finally resolved to strive to do so, so that the way to liberation from the sufferings of birth and death would be open to all people.
Along with his disciples he traveled to Rajagriha in Magadha and converted King Bimbisara as well as Shariputra and Maudgalyayana who were followers of Sanjaya, one of the six non-Buddhist teachers. Together with Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, all of Sanjaya's followers, numbering 250, forsook him and entered the Buddhist Order. Mahakashyapa became another of the Buddha's disciples in Rajagriha shortly thereafter.
The Buddha made several trips to his home which resulted in the conversion of many people including his half-brother Nanda, his son Rahula, his cousins Ananda, Aniruddha and Devadatta, and a barber named Upali. Shakyamuni's father, Shuddhodana, and his former wife, Yashodhara, also embraced the Buddha's teachings.
In the fifty years (some scholars indicate forty-five) from the time of his awakening until his death, Shakyamuni continued to travel through many parts of India disseminating his teachings. During his lifetime his teachings spread not only to central India but also to more remote areas and people of all social classes converted to Buddhism. Also, the Buddha had ten eminently capable disciples who devoted themselves to propagating the Buddha's teachings.
The spread of Buddhism can be understood by examining the society of India at that time. Brahmanism, the prominent religion of India, established a rigid caste system with the Brahmans supposedly acting as the only rightful intermediaries between man and God. The system divided all Indians into four classes or castes, and prohibited the mingling of members of different castes. The social establishment planted the roots of an impassive and resigned attitude deeply in the hearts of the people. The Buddha's teachings were totally against class domination and taught that all people were fundamentally equal. Buddhism also taught the universal law of causality and taught that one is not just resigned to his fate. Thus, due to its democratic and reasonable, yet profound teachings, Buddhism received the support of commoners and kings, the poor and the wealthy, resulting in the spread of Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings. The old Brahmanic order did not receive the spread of Buddhism passively. Shakyamuni personally underwent opposition termed the "nine great ordeals:' These were ceaseless challenges fomented by the Brahmans and also by a movement against him headed by his own cousin, Devadatta. But he persevered through all such adversities and continued to preach, expounding the Law in various ways according to the capacity and circumstances of those who gathered.
During the last eight years of his life, Shakyamuni expounded the Lotus Sutra which is the highest of all his teachings. In this sutra he taught that there is no essential difference between a common mortal of the nine worlds and a Buddha, and that the potential for enlightenment is inherent in everyone.
At the age of eighty, Shakyamuni passed away The year before his death he stayed at Gridhrakuta (Eagle Peak) in Rajagriha. He set out on his last journey from Gridhrakuta proceeding northward across the Ganges River to Vaishali. He spent the rainy season in Beluva, a village near Vaishali. There he became seriously ill, but recovered and continued to preach in many villages. Eventually he came to a place called Pava in Malla. There he again became ill after eating a meal. Despite his pain, he continued his journey until reaching Kushinagara. There in a grove of sal trees he calmly lay down and spoke his last words. He admonished his disciples, saying, "You must not think that your teacher's words are no more, or that you are left without a teacher. The teachings and precepts I have expounded to you shall be your teacher" His final words it is said were, "Decay is inherent in all composite things. Work out your salvation with diligence. His body was received by the Mallas of Kushinagara and cremated seven days later The ashes were divided into eight parts and eight stupas were erected to enshrine them. Two more stupas were built to house the vessel used in the cremation and the ashes of the fire. In the same year, the First Buddhist Council was held in the Cave of the Seven Leaves (Skt. Saptaparnaguha) near Rajagriha to compile his teachings.
