Sirs this will be the last but one post to continue my meditation on the sutta
This small post will be followed by table 3 where the 4 Aryan truths will be submitted, thereby completing the “engine” of the sutta.
Why do we want to live a life that follows the Eightfold Way, sir? Why do we take up dhamma?
Sirs, one day, I saw a lady feeding leftover rice to some street dogs. Until then, it was all fine. Suddenly, she pulled out a phone and started taking selfies with the feeding dogs in the background. It would obviously end up on Facebook or some other tube. Is it vulgar? But that’s our value system now, sir.
Why do we take up Dhamma sirs?
Perhaps then, I am “ more” than the average person. I feel “ good”?
Or may be I will become Sotapanna, next that, next something more…
Like, I will become a millionaire, next billionaire, next top ten.
One year back, a girl was stabbed in my country 16 times, sir. No one intervened. Why should I sir? What if I die? Who will feed my children?
Last week, however, in Delhi, two men intervened sir and helped a victim.
These two men are Aryans, sir.
Every grain we eat is cultivated by this society. Our eyes look into galaxies and distant stars, but not into what’s happening around us.
We have programmed ourselves to live with contradictions, suffering, and conflict. Somehow, if we can live this life, like this way and that way, and die peacefully….we feel we have done it. However, even pigs do the same. Sirs, haven’t we seen little piglets already practicing mating? That is us, sir.
Aryans (elders) are those who are able to see the disorder, conflict, and contradictions in our lives. What a meaningless rut they have become: filled with fears, desires, hurts, loss, suffering, and the same in the world out there.
And that’s why Aryans take up dhamma, sir. Aryans genuinely see it. Like the two men who helped the victim. It comes from the inside, from their bones.
For Aryans, it’s their duty, sir, to win back order and end the cycle of dukkha, not just for themselves but also for the society that has fed, clothed, and housed them.
The four truths section explains how Aryans see and act upon the four truths. It reveals how deep and serious our servitude to the 2 extremes(disorders) is, which we are amazingly unaware of and sometimes refuse to see. The section also elucidates further the mechanism of suffering. Eventually, it explains how serious the eightfold path is and why it is the Duty of the Aryans.