All posts by stanleymerrill

The Four Noble Truths

1. There is suffering

For all of us there are unwanted circumstances that cause our sufferings.

2. The cause of suffering is clinging and attachment

While the unwanted circumstances like birth, old age sickness and death are inevitable much of our suffering is caused by our reactions to these situations.   The more we cling to and attach to having a idealized perfect world that can never exist the more we will struggle against those realities of life.   That struggle manifests itself in the dramatizations and stories that we tell our selves that drive emotions such as hatred, anger, guilt, shame,  fear and anxiety.  The emotions drive us to bad decisions, high blood pressure and eventually create additional suffering that keeps us in the cycle of Samsara.

3. There is a way out of this suffering

That is the Noble Eight fold path