The Eightfold Path
Buddha
once declared: I teach but one thing, and one thing alone—the nature of
suffering, and the way that leads to its cessation.
The true Buddhist response to suffering is to walk along the path of the Noble Eightfold Way, freeing oneself first, and then extending that freedom to others still caught in the net of pain. It is a discipline of the human spirit, a moral courage that enables us to remain unshackled from sorrow.
But before we see how wisdom ushers liberation from suffering, we must first examine what this suffering is, and how it arises. For unless we penetrate its causes, its grip cannot be broken. Suffering may come in two forms: one physical, the other mental. Deliverance from either can be realized only when we enter into its very roots. In the language of an auditor, it is cure from the origin of risk. Here, the “risk” is none other than the primal source of suffering.
The Reality of Suffering
Buddha taught that human existence is inextricably bound with suffering. The word he used was sadness—a term far more profound than its English rendering, “suffering.” In other word, we may call it "Bhoga" yet not in the sense of indulgence, but in the sense of enduring, bearing, being consumed by life’s unease.
He explained that neither the world of the senses—delicious food, music, the beauty of the body—nor the world of the mind—emotion, feeling, fleeting happiness—can ever bring lasting peace. All things are transient; they shift and wither. That which constantly changes cannot be the source of eternal bliss.
The Cause: Craving and Desire
At the heart of suffering lies "Tṛṣṇā" — craving, thirst, longing. We are injured by desire because nothing in this world is permanent. We suffer because we wish things to be otherwise, because we long for what is not.
Think of the British weather. If you know it well, you are resigned that it will always change. But we suffer precisely because we wish it to be still. When we crave sunshine, it hides; when we yearn for clouds, the sky clears; when we beg the rain to stop, it lingers, mocking us. Our misery springs from the fact that the weather cannot bend itself to the measure of our desires.
This is the very nature of craving—it is insatiable.
Think of the itch on your skin. At first it is but a tickle, an irritation. You scratch, and the relief is intoxicating. Yet soon the itch returns, stronger, deeper, until you scratch again and again. The pleasure turns to pain; sometimes you bleed, yet you continue, driven by the irresistible compulsion. So is desire: unquenchable, ever recurring, luring us like moths into the flame of our own suffering.
Buddha therefore taught: if we truly wish for happiness, we must free the mind from thirst. Only when we cease to fix our gaze upon desired things do we begin to taste enduring joy.
The Role of Wisdom
But is it enough to say that wisdom alone will rid the mind of craving? Indeed, wisdom "Prajñā" allows us to see the truth of life: that all things—physical or mental—are impermanent, unreliable, incapable of wholly satisfying us. Like the weather of Britain, they are ever-shifting, never still.
When we see this deeply, craving dissolves. We understand that nothing should be clung to, for nothing can deliver the fullness we imagine. Whenever thirst is allowed to rise, anguish follows. Thus we yearn for "Nirvāṇa" — the quenching of thirst itself. Yet even this yearning, Buddha warned, must not be grasped too tightly, lest it return as another subtle craving.
The Noble Eightfold Way
Hence he pointed us to the development of wisdom through the Noble Eightfold Path—right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This path alone leads us to freedom.
The Buddhist response to suffering, then, is twofold: first, to walk the Eightfold Path and liberate oneself; then, having attained it, to help others free themselves from bondage.
But note this: only one who has rescued himself can extend rescue to another. A man trapped in quicksand cannot pull another free. One must first break one’s own chains before offering to unlock another’s. This is a crucial truth.
The Dilemma of the Liberators
And yet, how tragic the paradox! Through the centuries, countless great men have set forth to follow the Noble Eightfold Way, vowing to deliver humanity from pain and misfortune. But apart from a few rare figures in history, most of these would-be saviors neglected the Buddha’s last, crucial admonition: Free yourself first.
They rushed to liberate others without securing their own liberation. And so, history remembers many of them not as saints, but as hypocrites.
The true Buddhist response to suffering is to walk along the path of the Noble Eightfold Way, freeing oneself first, and then extending that freedom to others still caught in the net of pain. It is a discipline of the human spirit, a moral courage that enables us to remain unshackled from sorrow.
But before we see how wisdom ushers liberation from suffering, we must first examine what this suffering is, and how it arises. For unless we penetrate its causes, its grip cannot be broken. Suffering may come in two forms: one physical, the other mental. Deliverance from either can be realized only when we enter into its very roots. In the language of an auditor, it is cure from the origin of risk. Here, the “risk” is none other than the primal source of suffering.
The Reality of Suffering
Buddha taught that human existence is inextricably bound with suffering. The word he used was sadness—a term far more profound than its English rendering, “suffering.” In other word, we may call it "Bhoga" yet not in the sense of indulgence, but in the sense of enduring, bearing, being consumed by life’s unease.
He explained that neither the world of the senses—delicious food, music, the beauty of the body—nor the world of the mind—emotion, feeling, fleeting happiness—can ever bring lasting peace. All things are transient; they shift and wither. That which constantly changes cannot be the source of eternal bliss.
The Cause: Craving and Desire
At the heart of suffering lies "Tṛṣṇā" — craving, thirst, longing. We are injured by desire because nothing in this world is permanent. We suffer because we wish things to be otherwise, because we long for what is not.
Think of the British weather. If you know it well, you are resigned that it will always change. But we suffer precisely because we wish it to be still. When we crave sunshine, it hides; when we yearn for clouds, the sky clears; when we beg the rain to stop, it lingers, mocking us. Our misery springs from the fact that the weather cannot bend itself to the measure of our desires.
This is the very nature of craving—it is insatiable.
Think of the itch on your skin. At first it is but a tickle, an irritation. You scratch, and the relief is intoxicating. Yet soon the itch returns, stronger, deeper, until you scratch again and again. The pleasure turns to pain; sometimes you bleed, yet you continue, driven by the irresistible compulsion. So is desire: unquenchable, ever recurring, luring us like moths into the flame of our own suffering.
Buddha therefore taught: if we truly wish for happiness, we must free the mind from thirst. Only when we cease to fix our gaze upon desired things do we begin to taste enduring joy.
The Role of Wisdom
But is it enough to say that wisdom alone will rid the mind of craving? Indeed, wisdom "Prajñā" allows us to see the truth of life: that all things—physical or mental—are impermanent, unreliable, incapable of wholly satisfying us. Like the weather of Britain, they are ever-shifting, never still.
When we see this deeply, craving dissolves. We understand that nothing should be clung to, for nothing can deliver the fullness we imagine. Whenever thirst is allowed to rise, anguish follows. Thus we yearn for "Nirvāṇa" — the quenching of thirst itself. Yet even this yearning, Buddha warned, must not be grasped too tightly, lest it return as another subtle craving.
The Noble Eightfold Way
Hence he pointed us to the development of wisdom through the Noble Eightfold Path—right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This path alone leads us to freedom.
The Buddhist response to suffering, then, is twofold: first, to walk the Eightfold Path and liberate oneself; then, having attained it, to help others free themselves from bondage.
But note this: only one who has rescued himself can extend rescue to another. A man trapped in quicksand cannot pull another free. One must first break one’s own chains before offering to unlock another’s. This is a crucial truth.
The Dilemma of the Liberators
And yet, how tragic the paradox! Through the centuries, countless great men have set forth to follow the Noble Eightfold Way, vowing to deliver humanity from pain and misfortune. But apart from a few rare figures in history, most of these would-be saviors neglected the Buddha’s last, crucial admonition: Free yourself first.
They rushed to liberate others without securing their own liberation. And so, history remembers many of them not as saints, but as hypocrites.
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