This recording of selected sessions of a workshop entitled The Four Truths was made in Montreal’s West Island in the spring of 2005
Buddhism stands apart from other religions. It insists that ultimate happiness can be attained only through our own effort, and can be neither granted or denied by any divine or earthly being. Its purpose is to achieve what we might call an optimum state of awareness, known traditionally as Enlightenment, or Awakening.
The historical Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment and then remained sitting in silence. When he was finally asked to teach, his initial response was, “Teach what? Who would understand?” After being pressed however, he proceeded with his exposition of The Four Truths of the Noble Ones, which have since become the bedrock of Buddhist philosophy and practice.
Buddhism entails beliefs, but it's not a belief system, attempting to explain the meaning of life. The Buddha himself described his teaching as 'an end to views,' and constantly enjoined his followers to think for themselves – to not accept his word simply out of respect but to use all their empirical and rational consciousness to stand where he stood and share his perspective. He also suggested they each go off alone to sort things out, and in his entire lifetime he didn't establish a single monastery. The various Buddhist traditions that are alive today are on the whole august, respectable institutions that do their very best to preserve and even sanctify his teachings, but is that the point?
I received instruction on The Four Truths from literally dozens of teachers, most of them learned Tibetan lamas. I even began to teach the subject in the same traditional style, but lacking balance between theory and practice, I paused.
For two decades I sat on what I'd learned – meditated if you like – and these recordings are my digested appreciation of how they fit into our twenty-first century world and language. I'm struck by how easy it is for modern people to make sense of these issues, and speculate that if Buddha were here he'd adapt to modern circumstances and call his first teaching not The Truth of Suffering, but The Fact of Stress.
Trying to find satisfaction in today's world is tough. Even leisure time is increasingly stressful these days as we try to make time for every possible enjoyment and edification. For all our technological mastery, life is more mysterious than ever before, not because of what it is but because of who we are – and on that topic, Buddha's explanation is provocative, daring and truly enlightening.
