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This article reads like a crude and incomplete rehashing of Buddhism's four noble truths, minus the fourth. Humans experience suffering, this suffering comes f
by cyorir 12y ago
This article reads like a crude and incomplete rehashing of Buddhism's four noble truths, minus the fourth. Humans experience suffering, this suffering comes from desire, to eliminate suffering one must eliminate desire. The difference is that the article distinguishes between 'extrinsic' and 'intrinsic' desires whereas in Buddhist discourse it is generally held that suffering comes from all forms of desire, intrinsic or not.
- mbrock 12y agoThat's itself a rather incomplete way to explain the Four Noble Truths. Generally, utilizing desire is the only way to make any progress along the Buddhist path. Thanissaro Bhikkhu has written lots about this; here's a quote: "Most of us, when looking at the four noble truths, don't realize that they're all about desire. We're taught that the Buddha gave only one role to desire — as the cause of suffering. Because he says to abandon the cause of suffering, it sounds like he's denying any positive role to desire and its constructive companions: creativity, imagination, and hope. This perception, though, misses two important points. The first is that all four truths speak to the basic dynamic of desire on its own terms: perception of lack and limitation, the imagination of a solution, and a strategy for attaining it. The first truth teaches the basic lack and limitation in our lives — the clinging that constitutes suffering — while the second truth points to the types of desires that lead to clinging: desires for sensuality, becoming, and annihilation. The third truth expands our imagination to encompass the possibility that clinging can be totally overcome. The fourth truth, the path to the end of suffering, shows how to strategize so as to overcome clinging by abandoning its cause."