 It's really quite lovely out here. There's some aspects to this garden that could really appeal to Buddhism, specifically the importance of tranquility. Now Buddhism has some elements to it, some parts to it that are likely very unfamiliar to more than a few of us, more than a few people. Some parts that you might even wonder what's the point of all that to begin with, things like reincarnation. This is a major part of Buddhism, reincarnation. Other unfamiliar parts about Buddhism is the emphasis towards asceticism. So let's see, trying to remove as much distraction, we'll say, in one's life. Now these parts of Buddhism that are very unfamiliar to us, they're unfamiliar, however they come from a motivation that I think we can all understand and we can all relate to. And for the Buddhist part, he says, look, the reason why you want to pursue this ascetic life, you want to pursue a life of quiet tranquility meditation is to escape and to avoid suffering. So the Buddha, the sage, has defeated Mara and defeated Mara by literally not lifting a finger, defeated Mara by entering this meditation and realizing these truths about existence, fundamental truth about existence and what you're supposed to do with it. The Buddha seeks to teach this and teaches what's referred to as the Four Noble Truths. The First Noble Truth is suffering and what the Buddha states is that all of this existence is suffering. And it might be kind of hard to believe right now in this wonderful tranquil setting, but the Buddha says, yeah, well, you're still suffering. And if you were honest about it, you'd figure out how. So even though this is beautiful, it's also really warm outside. I wish I was someplace cooler. I suppose I go away for the weather to change, but as soon as the weather changes, get cold, all of this will be gone. And it'll be something different and we'll be able to enjoy it as it is anymore. Well, so I can either have the heat or the beautiful scenery. And if I have the beautiful scenery, then I miss the cold. Well, that missing is a suffering. And if I have the cold, then I'm going to miss the beautiful scenery and that missing is a suffering. All of this life around, all of this existence that I have, this birth, death, and even rebirth, it's all suffering. It's the perpetuation of samsara, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. I get hungry, so I need food. In order to have food, I have to work and work. I enjoy my work, but let's be honest, there's effort involved, exhaustion. There's suffering involved with my work. There's things about my work I don't want to have to do. I suppose I can not work, but then I would be hungry and that would be suffering. I come to, I mentioned I come to this place here and it's a beautiful place, but I have to work in order to be able to come here. If I didn't work, I wouldn't have this place. So what the Buddha is trying to tell us is existence is suffering. All of this existence is suffering. The second noble truth is the cause of suffering. And the cause of suffering simply stated, and the text uses the word thirst. I think we might understand it as desire, but thirst is a good word, right? When you get thirsty, you have to have water, you're miserable without the water. Well, there's plenty of things for which we're thirsty for, food, water, shelter, clothes, right? These were thirsty for. And in fact, when we start having these desires pretty soon, this existence is one of thirst. You're never satisfied, nothing is ever good enough. How many people after making a million dollars said, well, now I'm done, right? I've made my million dollars. I'm said, no, right? You keep earning more. I want two million dollars. I want three million dollars. I want a hundred million dollars. I want a billion dollars. It goes on from there. How many people win a race or how many gold medalists win a race? I said, now I'm finished, I can stop running. No, you always want to win the next race. So is the next competition. How much knowledge is really enough? If we had enough knowledge, then we wouldn't need to expand our libraries. But we keep doing more and more research. How often is it that you've had the best meal of your life? I mean, just incredibly great food and say, now I can stop pursuing great food. It's all healthy vegetables and grains from here on out. No, no, you don't do that. You want to have that meal again. So this experience in life, these experiences in life, these sensations, they incur thirst. They incur that desire, that wanting. And if the wanting isn't satisfied, you suffer. And not only is it that sometimes the wanting is not satisfied, but even if you get it, it's never enough. You always want more. So the first noble truth is that existence is suffering. Second noble truth, the cause of suffering, the cause of suffering is thirst. The third noble truth is how to end the suffering. To end the suffering, you have to be free from your passions. You have to be free from these emotions, you have to be free from these desires. To end the suffering, you have to stop wanting, you have to stop thirsting. And probably your initial reaction is, well, easier said than done. And the Buddha says, yeah, no kidding. You can't just simply not want things anymore. But you can just, you can reach the point where you stop wanting, where you stop thirsting. And this is the fourth noble truth. In order to stop the thirst, and so in order to stop the suffering, you follow the eight-fold path. It is the way to escape from suffering. It's the way to cease the thirst. Okay, so the first step in the eight-fold path is right ideas, or maybe we might even say the truth, the right ideas. The right ideas are the four noble truths and the twelve nirdhana. Now I don't have a separate clip about the twelve nirdhana, but basically this is an explanation of how we even develop this thirst to begin with. And it's a series of steps from ignorance, starting from ignorance. And this ignorance is ignorance of what you are. And from this ignorance of what you are, you develop individuality and your individual ego and your individual thirst. So it's worth looking at, it's interesting. So that's the right beliefs, is the four noble truths and the twelve nirdhana. The second step in the eight-fold path is right resolution. And so this is basically the idea of right resolution of will. You're determined to do what you need to do. And this resolution is to follow the eight-fold path of pretty much at all costs, right? Everything else comes second, everything comes. Nothing of what you want is a portion you've got to fulfill, the eight-fold path, no matter what. Nothing is set in your way. Now this doesn't mean you go about the eight-fold path wearing, you know, wielding a big club and knocking down anything you do know, right? That's actually ignorance of the rest of the eight-fold path. But the idea is that you have resolved yourself to complete the eight-fold path and you won't, you know, the only thing that can stop you from completing the eight-fold path is you. Nothing else can do it. You can stop yourself from the eight-fold path, even if somebody locked you up in a room. You can still follow the eight-fold path. So that's the second step in the eight-fold path, is right resolution. The third step in the eight-fold path is right speech. Now, this is where the Buddha, I think, actually might be, you know, having a little fun. I mean, at least I think it's fun, right? And what the Buddha is saying is, look, you really need to speak as little as you need to, right? Speak only when you need to, if even that. So that was the phrase in the text, words interfere with the truth in one's mind. In other words, you're not very good at expressing the truth, right? The words that you try to form in order to communicate the truth to somebody else always leave something out and the person that is listening to you may not think the same, they may not think the words mean the same thing that you think they mean. So speak as little as you need to, right? Speak only as much as you need to, and probably choose your words very carefully. This might lead one to silence. If you find out that you're not very good at expressing yourself, maybe you should just, you know, not try. Speak as little, or at least in this way, have the right speech. That's the third step in the Eightfold Path. The fourth step in the Eightfold Path is right behavior, right behavior. So the behavior that's described is, you know, pretty much a handful of things, right? At least a handful of ideals, I think of it. So the first is to not kill. Do not kill any animate life. No animate life must die. Human and or animal. I presume, at least I think I understand plants are not really in that category. They're not animate. They don't move around. But any human or animal bug, probably, anything that has that life, do not kill it. And abstinence, sexual abstinence. You must maintain self-control over your sexual behavior. And while it's not explicit in the text, I guess this means all sexual behavior. That's my guess. You know, if you're supposed to separate yourself from your desires, well, sex is a big one. Okay? So sexual abstinence. Third, honesty. You must be honest. And presumably, in that same category, you must be just. Don't steal. Honesty and justice. Don't take drugs. Don't drink alcohol. Don't take drugs. Don't drink alcohol. And the reason for that is, you know, pretty straightforward, right? Alcohol and drugs, they weaken your self-control, right? Well, the first thing alcohol hits is your inhibitions, and weakens your self-control. And weakens your self-control over your mind. You can believe all sorts of things under the influence of alcohol or drugs. So this is the fourth step, is right behavior, pacifism, right? Don't kill anything, sexual abstinence, honesty, justice, right? Treating other people fairly, maybe there's another way to kind of sum that up. And don't do anything to weaken your body's ability or your mind's ability to self-control. Okay? That's the fourth step, right behavior. Fifth step in the Eightfold Path is right vocation. And basically, you know, the right vocation is the one that follows the right behavior. Now, this eliminates quite a few, right? War, gambling, prostitution, cheating people, right? Lots of things like that are prohibited as far as a right kind of vocation. The ideal sort of vocation listed here in the text is, it says homeless, right? So the idea is that you are responsible to no one and for no thing. Nothing depends upon you, you depend upon nothing. You are living out your life following the Eightfold Path with repercussions, two and four, no one else. The sixth step in the Eightfold Path is called right effort. Now what I think this basically means is that maybe you might say right quality, right quality of your actions. So you carry out the right behavior and the right vocations cheerfully. You do so without holding a grudge, or saying, oh gosh, I got a withhold from absinthe, I got a withhold from sex today, and it's like, no, instead it's like I am freeing myself from these desires. I am liberating myself from samsara. So you carry out this behavior. You carry out your vocation with a cheerful demeanor, one that is content with your place in life. The seventh step in the Eightfold Path is called right mindfulness. Now this might be where the English doesn't do a very good job, but the idea is that you look at the world, you look at reality as it is, not as it is not, right? You don't have misconceptions about the world and reality. Now you might wonder, well what is that? The brief description we're given, the last few lines, is that you do not look at the world as it is, and they say as one of distinction and relation. Now I think what that means is this. So looking at the image right now, I am under the tree, under is a relation, and there's a distinction there. Me and the tree. Now with right mindfulness, I realize that it's all one. It's all one. It's all reality. Now I think this is what's going on here with right mindfulness, but I might have it mistaken. But this is the seventh step is right mindfulness. The eighth step in the Eightfold Path is called right dana. I don't think I'm pronouncing it right, sorry about that, right dana. And there's not really an English word that perfectly translates this. The text gives a couple of examples, I'm going to introduce another one. Might even call this self-awareness. Now the self-awareness you might think is becoming aware of your emotions, how you're feeling, what you believe, what you're thinking. That's not quite it. It's good to be aware of those things. But you need to be aware that, so right now I'm aware that I'm warm, that I'm a little hungry, that my feet are a little sore from, it's warm, so a little sweaty, lots of beliefs, and I can start thinking about those different beliefs, and I have lots of habits, I have lots of inclinations, so I could be aware of all those. But for this right self-awareness, you need to realize that you are experiencing these things, okay? I'm experiencing hunger and warmth and sweatiness and thoughts, but if I'm experiencing them, I am not those things. I am that which experiences those things, but I am not those things. There's a distinction between the warmth that I'm feeling and me. There's a distinction between the beliefs I have and me. Are the beliefs come and go? I'm not aware of all the beliefs at once, and some of the beliefs change. The sensations come and go. I will not always feel warmth. So to be mindful, to have the right Jainara, is to be self-aware that you are not these things. What are you? You are the self that experiences these things. You're distinct from your experiences. You are distinct from what you want, and when you realize this, you're that much closer to escaping, that desire, that much closer to escaping.