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.
In week 14 the 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.
In week 15 the preliminary subject was 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.
This week's preliminary ASP subject is again the ubiquity of suffering (duhkha) in the world, which is simultaneously the Third Sign of Being (fact of life) and the First Noble Truth of Buddhism.
According to Advayavada Buddhism, it is indisputable that the Buddha did not believe in Brahman (God, transcendent Absolute) or in the atman or atta (soul, immortal self) and taught that man suffers because he does not understand and accept that all things in life are instead utterly changeable and transitory. Man is prone to suffering (duhkha) quite simply because he wrongly strives after and tries to hold on to things and concepts which he believes to be permanent, but are not.
In Advayavada Buddhism, the concept of duhkha does not include emotional grief nor physical pain. It refers solely to the existential suffering, angst and regret non-enlightened human beings are prone to - the enlightened person accepts with understanding and compassion the grief and pain which are part and parcel of human existence; equanimity does not mean insensitivity to our own feelings and those of others.
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 (duhkha - existential suffering) in your pocket diary!
John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm>
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