In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is interpreted dynamically as an ongoing and autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight reflecting in human terms overall existence advancing over time.
By following the Noble Eightfold Path thus you get in tune with wondrous overall existence advancing over time; sorrow, doubt and remorse immediately start disappearing; and your life at once gathers new impetus.
Last week's first preliminary subject of our Study Plan was the First Sign of Being, i.e. the first fact of life: anitya, omnia mutantur, everything changes, the impermanence and changeability of everything, of all existents, including ourselves.
This week's second preliminary subject is the Second Sign of Being, the second fact of life: anatman, the selflessness of everything, and therefore the finitude or transitoriness of all individual existents, including ourselves.
The doctrine of anatman is one of the central teachings of Buddhism. According to this doctrine, there is no self or soul in the sense of a permanent, integral, autonomous being within an individual existent. What we think of as our self or soul, personality and ego, are our own mental creations.
'It is very difficult for people to grasp how everything originates in conditions and causes and to see that everything, including ourselves, depends on everything else and has no permanent self-existence.'
The purpose of the ASP is that we study and discuss the meaning and implications of the weekly subject particularly in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, such as our health, relationships, work, study, and our place and responsibilities in the group, sangha, society at large, etc.
Tip: Write down this week's subject (e.g. 'all things are transitory') in your pocket diary!
John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm>
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