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access plus 25
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off a full membership what does it mean
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to live well
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and be virtuous in a world of suffering
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chaos
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and deterioration what does it mean to
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go on living in a consciousness
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that is inevitably bound to the struggle
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of it only becoming more confused and
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tormented as it becomes more capable and
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aware
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generally speaking most religious and
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philosophical concepts are spurred out
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of these sorts of challenges and
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questions
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they represent humanity's attempt to
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overcome or deal with the deficiencies
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and difficulties bestowed into each pair
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of unrequested human hands
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one perhaps especially unique example of
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such an attempt
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is the philosophy and religion of
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buddhism
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[Music]
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somewhere between 6th and 4th century bc
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in what is now southern nepal
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a boy named siddhartha gautama was born
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he was born to an aristocratic family
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his father shorodhana being the king of
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a growing state in the indian
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subcontinent
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when siddhartha was born a holy
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messenger prophesied that he would
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become one of two things
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either a great king or a great religious
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leader
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when receiving this prophecy being the
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conservative king that his father was
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he determined that he would ensure that
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siddhartha would become the former he
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would ensure this by completely
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sheltering siddhartha confining him
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within a massive palace he had
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configured away and walled off from the
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rest of the world
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rigidly filtering what was allowed in by
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a standard of perfect health
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beauty and luxury constantly cleansing
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the palace of any signs of imperfection
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discomfort misery ugliness illness and
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death
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preventing siddhartha from ever knowing
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they existed
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all of this in shortadana's mind was to
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create a world that would be easy for
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siddhartha to fall in love with
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and desire kingship of removing any need
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to consider
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question or become interested in
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religious and spiritual domains
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throughout his childhood and into early
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adulthood however siddhartha would
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for this very reason become increasingly
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curious and begin probing into life
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at 29 years old his existential
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curiosity finally boiled over the walls
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of the palace
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and into the unknown and prohibited
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kingdom of beyond
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at this point siddhartha would make the
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decision to take his first journey out
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of the palace
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and into the world
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in anticipation of this in an effort to
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maintain the masquerade of a perfect
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redeemable world
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his father ordered the streets to be
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removed of all signs of pain
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suffering sickness old age and death
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despite this however while on his
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journey siddhartha would still happen by
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an extremely sick man
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his body obviously blemished and written
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on by the conditions of his ailment
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when siddhartha saw this he asked the
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chariot driver whom he was being
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escorted by
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what was wrong with the man the chariot
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driver informed siddhartha that the man
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was sick
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and explained to him what this meant
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after returning to the palace for a
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little while on a second journey out
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at some point siddhartha would next be
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exposed to an elderly man
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who looked extremely feeble frail and
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wrinkled
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again when he saw this having never seen
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an elderly person of such
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age he asked the driver what was wrong
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the driver informed him of the
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phenomenon of aging
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and how like that man all human bodies
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grow old with time
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decaying growing unattractive and
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becoming weak
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again after returning to the palace for
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a little while on a third journey out
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this time siddhartha would encounter a
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funeral procession occurring through the
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streets
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exposing him to for the first time a
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dead body
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again siddhartha asked what was wrong
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and was informed by the driver
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about death and the impending finite
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limit of all living things
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now completely and utterly devastated by
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his collection of newfound insights
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into the fragility of the physical body
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the temporal horizon of age
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and the finite terminating nature of
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existence of which all living things
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including himself would inevitably face
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he felt the final straw break
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destroying his comfortable sheltered
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youthful image of the world
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and replacing it with its true
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horrifying one
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realizing this truth of the world now
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siddhartha could no longer return and
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stay in the palace
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rather he found himself compelled by a
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new quest to overcome
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and deal with this image of life
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on a fourth journey siddhartha now
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seeking answers
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noticed a meditating holy man in the
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city who seemed to be at complete peace
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amidst the horrors that surrounded him
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curious about the man's apparent ability
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to attain such a state
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after inquiring into him siddhartha
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would become inspired and spend the
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following many months on a sort of
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spiritual quest
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seeking holy practices ideas and answers
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however being a very pragmatic and
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inquisitive man by this point
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refusing to mindlessly agree with the
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conventions orthodoxies
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and blind faiths required for many of
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the religious ideas and practices of the
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time
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siddhartha found himself at the very
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brink of available ideologies and
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methods
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still completely unsatisfied at some
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point
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along with a group of several other men
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siddhartha would engage in the extreme
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radical spiritual practice known as
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asceticism
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which involves a complete renunciation
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of earthly indulgences and pleasures
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in an attempt to deprive the body and
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free the self
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after many months of starving himself
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into an unrecognizably weak
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malnourished skin draped collection of
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bones siddhartha still had found nothing
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in the form of answers or resolutions to
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life
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he could not think straight and the
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extreme physical deprivation
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only created more futile suffering and
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so
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he began to eat food again returning
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back somewhere into the middle of the
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two extremes
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now ostracized by the ascetic men for
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what they felt was giving up
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siddhartha would continue on his own
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meditating alone in the forest away from
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the rest of the entire world
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he would continue to both eat and
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meditate not depriving his body
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nor pursuing much beyond what his body
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needed for basic comfort
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throughout this period siddhartha would
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experience a collection of introspective
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realizations
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and it was here that siddhartha would
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begin to formulate his fundamental
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philosophical tenets
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and it was here that sadartha's story
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would become the story
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of the buddha or the enlightened one
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in this moment buddhism would begin its
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journey in human history
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challenging and changing the course of
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religious social
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and philosophical orthodoxy forever
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in truth it isn't clear how much of the
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buddha's story is real or fable
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if not entirely fable most of what is
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known about the buddha and his teachings
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are based on oral accounts that were
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written down centuries after his death
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leaving plenty of room for various
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interpretations and supplementary
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details to be added
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and twisted furthermore there are
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numerous versions of a story that are
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accepted as accurate
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each with at least slightly different
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details tones
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spiritual references and overarching
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implications
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however regardless of literal accuracy
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and variation
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the general story of the buddha arguably
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always remains the same at its core
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it is a story of us all the story of
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growing up
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becoming curious and tempted seeking to
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move out and beyond the borders of the
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sheltered reality
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maintained by our parents society and
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our underdeveloped psyche
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beginning to discover life's
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contaminated horrors for the first time
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and the extreme lengths we often go to
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in order to try to understand
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overcome and escape them
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in terms of buddha's specific
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philosophical ideas his core principles
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are contained in what he termed
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the four noble truths the first noble
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truth being that life is fundamentally
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suffering
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no matter who or what all living things
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are bound and connected by this
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intrinsic
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existential quality of suffering in its
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broadest sense
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the second noble truth proposes that
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this suffering is a consequence of our
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desires
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and attachments the third truth in a
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revolutionary way of thinking for its
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time
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goes on to argue that since suffering is
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a product of attachment and desire
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one can personally overcome and end
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suffering by eliminating or
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recalibrating their desires and
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attachments
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the fourth and final noble truth
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contains the steps buddha believed were
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necessary to do so
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this collection of steps would be named
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the noble eightfold path
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also often referred to as the middle way
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these eight steps include right view
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right intention right speech right
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action right livelihood right effort
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right mindfulness and right
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concentration these concepts are not so
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much steps to be achieved or discovered
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in a linear order
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but rather a wheel of actively
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circulating behaviors and wisdoms
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that one must constantly be turning in
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broad summary it essentially calls for
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the practice of wisdom
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humanistic morality through universal
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compassion
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moderation self-knowledge and reaching
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enlightenment or nirvana
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through non-attachment and the
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elimination of desire
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essential to the success of buddhist
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teachings is this final idea of
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non-attachment
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and no desire admittedly this concept
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can sound rather convoluted
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or at the very least counter-intuitive
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at first but it starts by recognizing
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the true nature of the self
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which is in at least one interpretation
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of the buddhist teachings
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non-self or emptiness buddha argued that
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fundamentally
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our external world is in perpetual
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unattainable flux and consequently
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so too are we we are but collections of
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constantly changing qualitative
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interactions between the world
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and our thoughts and thus the idea of a
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fixed
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independent identifiable self is a
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delusion
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this is essential to understand because
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it suggests that the self that we are
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trying to satisfy
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escape or eternalize never even really
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exists in the first place
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rather the capital i that we describe is
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merely a state of emptiness
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constantly being filled and emptied by
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the succession of each moment
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this concept can perhaps be experienced
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distinctly when one considers how there
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is no real central point of sensation
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and experience when one experiences
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something like smell
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mental vision taste memory or emotion
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of course they can be pointed to the
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mind but where in the mind
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after the nose who or what is smelling
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or let's say if you imagined a purple
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cat right now
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and visualized it in your head where is
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the purple cat
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how is the purple cat where are you
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seeing it from
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there is just a blank emptiness filled
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up by the interacting thoughts and
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sensations of the moment
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all becoming one constantly changing
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hybrid of self
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and material world buddha's teachings
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are about reorienting our view of
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ourself
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so that we see this that there is none
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so we can then
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reorient our view of the world according
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to the buddha
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we suffer not as a result of not having
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enough things like money
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status success or ideal external
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circumstances
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but because the desire for such things
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is attached to the impossible delusion
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of a permanent self capable of being
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satisfied by desire
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and the only way out of this is ending
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or at least attempting to reduce
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one's dependence on such desires and
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attachments
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living with some form of restrained
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moderation and conquering the prodding
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delusion of self
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though one may conquer a thousand times
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a thousand men in battle
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yet he indeed is the noblest victor who
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conquers himself
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self-conquest is far better than the
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conquest of others
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not even a god an angel mara or brahma
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can turn into defeat
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the victory of a person who is
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self-subdued and ever restrained in
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conduct
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said the buddha of course buddhism is
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not without its shortcomings and
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outdated artifacts
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for secular types its religious
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association can likely pose its fair
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share of problems
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and outside of this just in terms of its
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general core principle
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can one truly desire no desire does this
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work as a final desire
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ceasing the very thing required to enact
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it or does it create a mirage effect
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that holds us in further submission to
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it moreover to what extent do we really
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have any control over our desires
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the information we encounter and how it
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all works together to affect us
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and as the world and humanity continues
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to develop further and further
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and temptations and indulgences and
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distractions
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seep into every corner of modern
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societal life we are likely left with at
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the very least
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an extremely difficult uphill climb into
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even the secular form of his teachings
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however regardless of this and any other
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difficulties or pitfalls
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buddhism still remains a highly unique
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and compelling system of thinking
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over millennia it has seen many
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different iterations interpretations
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updates and effects not only in the east
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but also in the west
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even influencing many significant
00:13:01
western philosophers by the likes of
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arthur schopenhauer
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friedrich nietzsche ralph waldo emerson
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emil charon
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alan watts likely david hume and many
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others
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currently it is the world's fourth
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largest religion with over half a
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billion followers worldwide
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primarily divided into two main
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overarching categories
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theravada and mahayana at its core
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buddhism still remains one of the most
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unique and dynamic schools of religious
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thought
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grounding its ideas in empirical
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experience and practical methodologies
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making its wisdom accessible without
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necessarily depending on any gods
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or faith in the unknowable and
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untouchable bringing the spiritual down
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into the hands of the pragmatic everyday
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person
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and perhaps most significantly it
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confronts the suffering and darkness of
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life directly
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and does not keep us in the palace of
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ignorance it does not try to lie to us
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it does not shelter or cuddle it makes
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its best efforts to find the minimums
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and maximums of life
00:14:00
and lead us down a path towards some
00:14:01
semblance of hope and living well
00:14:03
in spite of what's really out there
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[Music]
00:16:27
uh
