I
♦The Sacred Truth of Suffering♦
But conflict has appeared, and associates itself with the creatures
which seem to have an existence apart from the mother universe. There
ought to be no Self, no life apart, all such Selves or lives are
abnormal. Conflict, suffering, is the inevitable result.
♦The Self-Life♦
How the universe became thus maimed, and creatures born to the misery of
separation came into being, the Buddha did not inquire, even as he did
not inquire into the problem of a First Cause which set the chain of
causation in the universe in motion. He took the situation as he found
it, and applied himself to it. If separation from the universe, that is,
a separate existence or being, be the evil, clearly the only possible
remedy must be to end the separation.
The Buddha broke away from previous Indian teaching on one point;
to the Brahman, Soul in the universe and soul in man are the central
fact; Soul, either in the Brahman sense, or in the sense in which we
understand it, Buddhist teaching denies. The being of man is composed
of certain elements in addition to the body or material part. These
are:--Sensations, Ideas, Tendencies, and Powers; and it is these which
make up the consciousness of existence--the Self. As soon as a Self is
born, that is, a being apart from the only true Centre, it becomes its
own centre. It has no knowledge, but it sees that which is outside of
itself, and supposes that there must be joy in drawing towards itself,
in possession.
♦Desire♦
It therefore begins to feel outward from itself, to _desire_; and then
to attempt to grasp that which it desires. Whatever be the result of
that grasping, whether success or failure to attain the desire, sorrow,
suffering, and loss are the inevitable end.
“_This, O recluses, is the noble Truth concerning suffering. Birth is
painful, and so is old age; disease is painful, and so is death; union
with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant;
and any craving that is unsatisfied, that too is painful._”
The Effect of that Cause--a Self apart from its true Centre--is, as it
ought to be,--misery.