The eighty four thousand ways

It is said that the first sermon Buddha gave after his enlightenment is about the four truths he rediscovered in his 9 years of quest of ending the suffering of all sentient beings. The first truth states that life is full of suffering. The second is that the cause of suffering is craving. The third states that the suffering can be eliminated. The fourth says the answer to the elimination of suffering is the Eight Fold Paths. I learned this teaching from Rev. Kusula’s pod casts in his website: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma9/dharmatalks.html

Many of my friends don’t agree with this concept that life is full suffering. They think their life, though is not perfect, is not bad either. They have money in their account. They travel overseas now and then. Their children have above average school performance. Their marriage relationship is quite ok. They seem to be satisfied with everything in their life. So they say “don’t just look at the dark side of life, mate!”. What they say are not wrong, but we all forget that one day we will face death. This is the most difficult thing to deal with, not to say all the troubles along the route.

It is right that we should not only look at the dark side of life. But it is true that besides the happy things there are sad things waiting for the right time and place to visit us. When this happens, suffering arises. And if we are not trained to deal with it, we suffer .

I know a friend whose son was a top student in high school. Not only that, he was a filial son to his parents. A brilliant future seemed to be guaranteed to him. One night when he was studying at home, he suddenly felt headache in agony. So his father called up ambulance to rush him to hospital, and they followed it in their car. As soon as they had parked the car and walked into the ward, their son was announced dead.

A friend of mine had an enviable family. His marriage was the model to every one of us. No one ever had seen them saying any harsh word to each other. Their children are all grown up and are very nice to them. Who knows one day when he was standing in the back yard he fell down to ground and died on the same day. Aged 55.

Another story was about someone I had met once long time ago. Wealthy and healthy he was, his family never thought that one day in his regular swimming session he would die from heart attack upon jumping into the water. Aged 45.

Not just that someone we love dies will cause us suffering, the less serious incidents can bring us all sorts of negative feelings, too. Have a visit to the hospital and you will be reminded of the world of suffering. Any part of our body goes wrong will make us suffer from annoying discomfort to as serious as experiencing the process of death depending on how bad our physical problems is. Mental health problems can drive people mad too. Even everyday living is full of unpleasant incidents. Divorce, domestic violence, extra-marital affairs, drug addiction, alcoholism, and etc you name it, Google search proves it.

Man! No one can be guaranteed to be free from one or the other of these problems. And according to Buddha’s teaching, the suffering caused by any of these problems originates from our craving, hatred and ignorance, the so called “three poisons” in Buddhism.

About 2500 years ago, Prince Siddhartha Gautama, like every one of us in this world, experienced the suffering as well. He determined to find the cause and solution to being free from suffering. He found The Four Noble Truth mentioned above.

The fourth truth is about The Eightfold Paths: 1) Right understanding 2) Right thought 3) Right speech 4) Right actions 5) Right livelihood 6) Right effort 7) Right mindfulness 8) Right concentration.

Although by following the eight paths the elimination of suffering is guaranteed. But because every one of us is unique, so each of us needs to find a most suitable way to get rid of the three poisons and fulfil the paths, thus Buddha taught eighty four thousand ways for us to choose from.

By chance, I viewed a video tape of Dharma talk by Master Chin Kung in year 2000. That tape is titled “Get to know Buddhism”. From this video I was introduced the method of chanting Amitofo as the most suitable way to me to reach the ultimate goal of Nivana.

I have got the method, but it is up to me to practice the way consistently in order to attain a true happiness. Suffering might not disappear immediately; I know at least no more new bad karma is to be entered to my merit account.