Path to deliverance from suffering

16 February 2022 01:28 am Views - 232

Gautama Buddha declared ‘the world is established on suffering and is founded on suffering’ (Dukke loko patititthhito). All problems in life bring about unsatisfactoriness and as we attempt to put an end to them that gives rise to other problems. We are constantly confronted with fresh problems in our daily life. Such is the nature of suffering and it is the universal characteristic of sentient existence. Suffering appears constantly and passes away only to reappear in other forms. Suffering and impermanence continually present challenges and people are faced with various life obstacles that are out of their control. Suffering can be either physical or psychological. The Buddha declared everything subject to origination is subject to dissolution”. The law of Anicca or impermanence stipulates that all contingent existence is transitory. Nothing is in exact state it was in the previous instant and nothing remains the same for two consecutive moments. 

The Covid 19 pandemic has brought in to sharp realisation the fact of suffering (Dukka). In one of the discourses recorded in Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha offered the following simile to explain the fleeting nature of human life. “Just as a dew drop on the tip of a blade of grass will quickly vanish at sunrise and will not last long, so too Brahmin, human life like a drop of dew, it is limited, brief and fleeting and it has much suffering, full of tribulation…. none who is born can escape death.” Therefore, given the limited and fleeting nature of human life, it becomes important for Buddhists to tread the path leading to the deliverance from suffering. 

In the first Noble truth, the Buddha defines the truth of dukka thus. “What monks, is the Noble Truth of Dukka? Birth is dukka, decay is dukka, death is dukka, sorrow, lamentation, pain displeasure and despair are dukka; union with the unpleasant dukka, separation from the pleasant dukka, not what one wants is dukka; in brief, the five aggregates of clinging are dukka. These monks, is the Noble Truth of Dukka”.

The solution for the aforesaid problems of dukka (unsatisfactoriness) of life is the Noble Eightfold Path propounded by Lord Buddha more than 2600 years ago. This is the only way to the cessation of suffering and also a vital step in emancipating ourselves from interminable cycle of rebirths.

The eight factors of the paths are 1. Right Understanding (sammaditthi) 2. Right Thought (sammasankappa) 3. Right Speech (sammavacca). 4. Right Action (sammakammanta) 5. Right Livelihood (sammaajiva) Morality or Virtue Group sila 6. Right Effort, (sammavayama). 7. Right Mindfulness (samma sati) 8. Right concentration (samma samadhi). 

These eight factors aim at promoting and perfecting the three essentials of Buddhist training and discipline.   
The first two are classified as Wisdom (panna), the second three as Morality (sila) and the last three as Concentration (samadhi). These three stages in the Eightfold Path are encapsulated in a Buddhist stanza (sabba papassa akaranan - kusalassa upa sammapada - sacitta priyo dapanan - etan buddhanu sasanan). To ease from all evil to cultivate good to purify one’s mind that is the advice of all Buddhas.

The eight steps of the path are not expected to be realised in sequence, one after the other. Rather, they are considered a unity, an organic whole. They are interdependent and interrelated. Although it is generally spoken as a path to be treaded, in actual fact eight steps signify mental factors to be practised. 
According to Ven. Walpola Rahula, the divisions of the Noble Eightfold Path should be developed more or less simultaneously, as far as possible according to the capacity of each individual. 

Right Thought in the Wisdom group is threefold and it denotes the thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment, thoughts of love and thoughts of non violence, which are extended to all beings.
Right speech means abstention (1) from telling lies, (2) from backbiting and slander and talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity and disharmony among individuals or groups of people, (3) from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious and abusive language, and (4) from idle, useless and foolish babble and gossip.

Right Action aims at promoting moral, honourable and peaceful conduct. 
As far as the Right Livelihood, in the Noble Eightfold is concerned, it should be stated that Lord Buddha has not expatiated much on it. Buddha simply declared that a layman should not pursue certain trades which are considered to be morally and ethically wrong.  

Next stage is Concentration (samadhi) group which Embodies  three other factors of Noble Eightfold Path namely Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. 
Right Effort (sammavayama) in general sense means cultivating positive attitude towards whatever we undertake to do. The second step of the Noble Eightfold Path that is embodied in the category of Concentration (mental development) is Right Mindfulness. Right Concentration is the steady fixing of the mind on a single object to the exclusion of all others. 

Rev. Narada Thera had this to say about Samadhi, “It is said before practising samadhi an aspirant should select carefully the subject of meditation. In the past it was customary for aspirants who are bent on meditation to seek guidance of a competent teacher to choose suitable subject according to his temperament”.