At the conclusion of the Buddha’s first sermon on The Four Noble Truths the “dharma eye” of one the five ascetics, Kondanna, is said to have opened, which led him to utter the phrase “whatever is subject to arising is subject to ceasing.”
The Fourfold Task
1. Suffering (dukkha) is to be comprehended. “Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, sickness is dukkha, death is dukkha, encountering what is not dear is dukka, separation from what is dear is dukkha, and not getting what one wants is dukkha.” By contrast not paying heed to these dimensions of life, we become enamored, seduced, and captivated by what is agreeable, which leads to cycles of reactive and addictive behavior that keep us trapped, frustrated, and afflicted. Comprehension by contrast, encompasses the totality of what has happened and what is happening: it is to embrace a life permeated by both pain and pleasure, suffering and joy.
2. The arising is to be let go of. We are creatures who react as we come into contact with the world through our senses. If what we meet feels pleasant, we react with attraction; if it feels unpleasant we react with aversion; and if it feels neither pleasant nor unpleasant, we react with restlessness or boredom. To these reactions we could add guilt, self-doubt, vanity inadequacy, anxiety, conceit, paranoia, expectation, wishful thinking, and so on. Such reactions are entirely natural. They are neither good nor bad. Strictly speaking, they are not even personally ours. They are simply what happens when an organism interacts with its environment. They are what arises.
3. The ceasing is to be beheld. This facet of the fourfold task is to “behold the ceasing”, which is equivalent to becoming aware of nirvana. Here is the classical definition of nirvana. “This is the ceasing: the traceless fading away, and ceasing of reactivity, the letting go and abandoning of it, freedom and independence from it. It is immediate, clearly visible, inviting, uplifting and personally sensed by the wise.” One can become aware of nirvana whenever greed, hatred, and confusion are momentarily inactive, irrespective of whether one self-identifies as a Buddhist or practices meditation. To behold and thus become aware of nirvana means consciously to affirm and valorize these moments when you see for yourself that you are free to think, speak, and act in ways that are not determined by reactivity. Nirvana is a space of moral possibility, the gateway to an active and ethical life.
4. The path is to be cultivated “and this is the path: the path with eight branches: complete view, complete thought, complete speech, complete action, complete livelihood, complete effort, complete mindfulness, complete concentration.” The goal of the fourfold task is to lead an integrated life. It is perhaps for this reason that cultivating the eightfold path is presented as the fourth facet of this task, even though it is already implicit in the other three. Logically, an integrated life is the outcome of having embraced the imperfect world, let go of reactivity, and beheld reactivity’s ceasing. From this still and empty space, one then responds with intuitions, thought, intentions, words, and acts that are not determined by reactivity. In practice, though, the moment in which reactivity ceases is also the moment that allows a complete view (the first branch of the path) to emerge.
The above is from Stephen Batchelor’s book After Buddhism, Yale University Press. Quotes from the Buddha’s teachings are in quotations.
I hope that you have appreciated and considered the wisdom the above. I have a reason for including this today. In the second line of section 4 are the words in bold “complete livelihood”. The Buddha did not tell us what complete or right livelihood was, but he did tell us what was wrong livelihood; to name a few: making poisons, making weapons, trafficking in human beings, profiting from the slaughter of animals and being an actor. This last one puzzled me for a long time as acting is a respected profession in our place and time. However, based on the forces that I have seen dividing our nation during the past several decades, I now know why the Buddha did not see acting as right livelihood. Why? Because actors have a talent that can attract and influence an audience and they can be paid b
y a person or an entity trafficking in the evils of wrong livelihood.