འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ་བཞི་
Your Attention Please
The four noble truths – Abraham Heschel wrote: “Only intense self-reflection—at least as powerful as the conditions and falsehood it sought to transcend—could alleviate corruption. As such, this cure arrived at Truth by way of authenticity; it required unrestrained introspection, reflection. This search for increasing, progressive intensity is usually distasteful to man, to whom the outward life appeals because it is familiar and secure.”[1] We should notice that this procedure is particularly “distasteful to man” because human beings can only rarely and with great effort extricate themselves from desires. Heschel’s further remarks:
“Yet in today’s disintegrating world, where all inwardness is externalized, our inner selves face a wasteland. . . . The Kotzker would say that Judaism is truth. Truth is inwardness, inwardness is authenticity, and authenticity is attained through intense, passionate inner action. Only integrity can save man and his faith.”[2]
In my lectures on SE Asia, I highlight the impact of Buddhism on Asian cultures. Notably, animist cultures that adopted Buddhism sometimes turned away because Buddhism required precisely this kind of inward authenticity. India is a prime example. Once Buddhist, it became the center of Hinduism because Hinduism is “easier.” Buddhism requires confrontation with human reality, not a wishful escape into a world of fickle gods. The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism start with the same intensity Heschel outlines:
- Suffering exists. When we become aware that the nature of day-to-day existence is suffering, we don’t have to be miserable with the thought that suffering will always be present. Suffering doesn’t go on forever,[3]
- The cause of suffering is defilement, generally the conflict between desire and reality.
- The cessation of suffering is possible if you remove desire.
- The path to the ultimate goal exists by rejecting all desire.
We might ask if modern Christianity follows the inward path of confrontation, authenticity, and integrity or if, like India’s shift from Buddhism to Hinduism, hasn’t opted for an easier, external route where confession, creed, and sacraments are external signposts of faith. We are reminded that God asked Abram to “go out from yourself,” a command that suggests leaving behind those accoutrements of religious practice and pursuing a world hidden from public approval. Biblical faith does not demand the abnegation of desire but it does demand submission of the yetzer ha’ra to the God’s will. That is the real journey, and a much more difficult one.
Topical Index: Buddhism, Heschel, inwardness, authenticity, Four Noble Truths
[1] Abraham Heschel, A Passion for Truth, p. 126.
[2] Ibid., p. 127.
[3] https://www.drepunggomang.org/dharma-topics/117-the-four-noble-truths
