On Second Thoughts...

[poliphilo]

...I'm unhappy with my version of the fourth truth. It contains too much interpretation. In the original Buddha is recommending the Eightfold Way- by which he means "right thinking", "right action" etc- without defining what he means by "right".

So here's a second version:

1  Life is hard

2  Because we're always wanting things.

3  Stop wanting things.

4  Lead a good life.

Comments

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

I like this.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I think it's an improvement on the first version.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

You are getting attached to getting that list right :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Damn- so I am!

[sambeth.livejournal.com]

But what if you want things like food, or water, or relief from pain? Blister plasters? You know, proper stuff, not nail varnish and sofa covers. Ill and hungry people are the grumpiest of all, in my experience, and no wonder - you can't just 'stop' feeling pain/thirst/hunger.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this. Gautama was a prince. I think he may have been taking basic human needs for granted.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

He was not always a prince. It was his coming to grips with human suffering that led to his Enlightenment.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Now I'm remembering....

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

I have been told by both Buddhists and Jains that the movie "Little Buddha" is a good introduction into the tradition.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes- that's what I'm remembering.

Keanu Reeves- born to play Buddha!

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

. . . no, not really. One idea is that a human being can detach from actual needs. If one does so, one is a Buddha or Bodhisattva.

How does a Buddhist monk set him or herself on fire as a protest? Or go through the process of self-mummification, which is a process of deliberately starving oneself in a ritual manner to leave a preserved corpse? By being detached from the needs of the body, like the need to "not be on fire" or "not starve to death by drinking nothing but a lacquer-based tea that will mummify the tissues from the inside."

[ccord.livejournal.com]

Ah, well the original wording is "trishna", which has more the connotation of "clinging attachment", rather than a wanting for the normal necessities of life. At the one end, it applies to the whole range of unnecessary desires which one, for instance, bequeaths the status of "needs", and thereby obsesses over. Clinging attachment to other human beings, to things, or to particular diversions are the usual examples, but also attachment to self-image, illusions, and such.

[sambeth.livejournal.com]

Okay, that makes much more sense.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

4. Drop dead from lack of nourishment.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Or, "It's wanting that keeps us alive." --Paola Franco, Dangerous Beauty

And I think that's quite true. It's also wanting that makes human accomplishment possible. The creative impulse is all about wanting to make tangible this powerful, compelling image or melody or idea that itches like blinding white tsunami-wave light crashing in your head, demanding to be noticed. It's wanting equal treatment, self-governance, the right to vote, decent living conditions for people around you or far away, and wanting those things badly, that make for social change. Yes, wanting makes life hard. Who says life was meant to be easy? Who says easy is good?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And that's true too.

Can views that contradict one another both be true? I think they can.

[basefinder.livejournal.com]

This is good and concise. Simple to understand. Others will debate the phrase "wanting things" but to me it is intuitive that "things" means "wants" rather than "needs." Thanks for distilling this!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I thought the best way to try and get a grip on what Gautama was saying was to try and rephrase it- without the jargon words.