Aspire...

This last Friday evening was spent most beautifully, the arrival of spring in the bay area being only the start of a blissful arrangement of events this entire weekend. A beautiful walk at the foothills around campus was folloowed by a most enlivening disussion with my SG. One of the many insightful threads we followed, I shall touch upon here.

What we wish to become requires some knowledge as to what is worth becoming. That presents a loopy problem. Take heart, there is a solution. A sincere desire to elevate oneself from whatever state one is in presently is the most important step in the process of elevation itself. That desire is what allows one to see opportunities for growth and seek them fervently in every step forward. It is the desire that brings courage to to set fear aside and face every new trial. It is the desire that allows the mind to soak in the knowledge that each new trial contains, hidden beneath its wrappers. And so, you see, the desire to learn brings knowledge to the desirous. Indeed, the goal enables the process. And the world conspires in it.

In this the month of sacrifice, of shedding our lower selves for the higher, in dissolving our attachment to identity for unity, of firmly choosing the right path at forks where the choice is clear, the ascent steep and road unpaved...may we set ourselves only the most lofty of ideals, may we only aspire to give more than we receive, may we desire most fervently to be tested by fire and strengthened thereby.

And, so I share these words of Rumi that struck a chord deep within.

--

Make real the sublime words of the Prophet:

"We are the last and the foremost."

The fresh and perfect fruit is the last thing to come into existence

For although the fruit is the last thing to come into existence,

It is, in fact, the first, for it was the goal.

--

An excerpt from 'Heroes'

Anyone, to the degree of his enlightenment,

sees as much as he has polished himself.

The more he polishes, the more he sees,

the more visible do the forms become.

If you say purity is by the grace of God,

this success in polishing is also through that Generosity.

That work and prayer is in proportion to the yearning:

People have nothing but what they have striven for.

--

With will, fire becomes sweet water;

and without will, even water becomes fire.

Incredible !ndia

Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths & the Eight-fold Path...

At the Indian consulate in SFO last week, I found Indian tourism board's Incredible !ndia posters proudly displaying its many beautiful facets. Among them, the majestic Himalayan peaks, the Golden temple in Amritsar, an aerial view of Jaipur, the Madurai Meenakshi temple, and in one corner a poster on Buddhism. The least magnificent of all in terms of its visual appeal, it was, I must say the most beautiful in what if fed the mind and spirit. In describing Sarnath (it was in the Deer Park at Sarnath that the Buddha gave his first significant sermons on the Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path to his five fellow seekers who became the first monks of the order), it went on to enumerate each of the Four Noble Truths and The Eight-Fold Path. N remarked that I had managed to remove myself from the incredibly Indian experience, that was, as always, rich in visual and aural stimuli, a little mela playing itself out in the CGI premises. Absolutely endearing to watch and a fabulous dose of being on Indian soil for a precious few minutes, it was this poster that grounded me. :) And so here it is, the essential truth about existence and our intended path to a higher one:

1. Dukkha- The Nature of Suffering

2. Samudaya- The Cause of Suffering

3. Nirodha- The Cessation of Suffering

4. Marga- The Path to Cessation of Suffering

Dukkha: The Noble Truth of the Nature of Suffering

Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five categories affected by 'clinging' are suffering. Fittingly, the Pali word 'Dukkha' means incapable of satisfying and unable to withstand. In one word, it summarizes impermanence of the sensory realm.

(The poster called impermanence and the dissatifaction arising from it as 'unsatisfactoriness'. I spent a few seconds trying that word on my tongue; a most intersting variation of what exists in the dictionary, but, importantly, it makes the point quite clearly.)

Samudaya- The Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering
The origin of suffering is attachment. Attachment is of three kinds, specifically, attachment to three kinds of desire: desire for sense pleasure (kama tanha), desire to become (bhava tanha) and desire to get rid of (vibhava tanha). In other words, attachment leads to constant craving in one form or another. The craving for sensory fulfilment is inherently incapable of being satisfied and lies at the root of suffering.

Nirodha- The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

Yes, suffering can in fact cease to exist. What is that state of non-suffering?

It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving; the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on it.

Powerful words and they need unpacking. The cessation of suffering has to come mentally; it requires understanding that dukkha arises from a reliance or a belief that reliance on sensory objects of fulfilment could lead to satisfaction. Knowing that such sources of fulfilment are inherently impermanent, leads to a non-reliance on them, and hence to an end to craving for them. That is the cessation of suffering.

Marga- The Noble Truth of the Path to Cessation of Suffering

How can one attain a state of non-suffering?

Cessation of Suffering can be achieved by following the eight-fold path.

I shall end this post at this point and enumerate the eight-fold path in a separate one, so that, dear reader, you may meditate upon the four noble truths before taking up the prescribed path to exit the loop of desire- dissatisfaction and more desire.