I’ve been thinking a lot about Buddhism lately, because my early practice in this life was heavily characterized by Buddhism, and Buddhism is what’s responsible for my interest in unraveling reality which eventually led me toward subjective idealism a few years ago. I’d be surprised if I was the only one on this sub for whom that was the case.

When I first encountered Buddhism, I encountered it with a very different understanding than I have now and many of the ideas were (as I think they generally are) very easily misunderstood. Buddhism deals with some very basic and fundamental concepts which are just bound to be understood incorrectly by someone operating in the wrong paradigm. I wrongly interpreted things that I encountered in Buddhism, I believe, because my understanding was poor and one with poor understanding misinterprets everything axiomatically.

So I’ve been interested in re-approaching some early Buddhism, some Pali canon fundamental type stuff, to see if investigating it at this point in my practice I’ll find it much more useful than I did when I last contemplated it.

I spent some time with the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path today and wrote an interpretation of it “in my own words”, for myself, as a practice of better understanding (I find things more accessible when I convey them than when they’re conveyed to me). It is not explicitly canon and not directly in-line with Buddhism in a few places (the two most glaring ones I’ve pointed out with footnotes) but it, I think, carries on the spirit of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path into subjective idealist terms.

You are currently, consciously aware that you are undergoing certain experiences. That these experiences, also called phenomena, are presently occurring within your consciousness is one of the only things you can be certain of.

Amongst the phenomena that are arising within your conscious experience, one of them is called “suffering”. Even when it is not apparent, as it may not be in this moment, suffering exists latently at a very high level, as an easily realized potential, just below the surface, which permeates your current type of experience. The potentiality of suffering arising is generally high at any given moment.

This phenomena of suffering does not arise independently within your conscious experience, of course. Many other phenomena arise, and suffering is but one among them. However, like each of them, suffering arises within the context of, in relation to, and causally interconnected with other phenomena. Suffering is but one segment of a vast web of experiences that you’re currently undergoing.

The good news is that the causality which provokes suffering to arise within your conscious experience can be circumvented and the conscious experience can be transformed into one in which there is no suffering. The method to cultivating such a suffering-free experience is done by utilizing your will to change your conscious experience, your capacity to interact with reality intentionally.

You must be wise. You must have the right view, perspective, or understanding about the nature of reality. One cannot begin the path with a conventional understanding of the nature of reality. One can only begin the path to the release of suffering if one has first understood that reality is not as it appears, and does not exist as a physical and objective realm.^1 One must recognize the path before one can walk the path.

You must also have the right intention and the right aspiration to achieve this goal. According to one’s right view or perspective, one must aspire to proceed in such a way that is progressive. One must walk toward the end of the path if one wishes to arrive at the end of the path. You must aspire in the direction of removing limitations, sufferings, and ignorance from yourself and from other beings. This intention must be a persistent feature of one’s experience and reflecting often on the intention is important if one is to avoid straying from the path toward the release of suffering.

Proceeding with right intention, you must act in accordance with it. A path cannot be traveled if one will not walk it. One must act in such a way that moves along the path to the release of suffering. How does one do this? When you utilize your capacity to speak, to convey thought, do so rightly. When you utilize your capacity to act with the body, act only rightly. When you occupy the body in daily affairs, occupy it toward right ends. What is it to speak, to act, or to occupy the body only rightly? It is when speech, action, or occupation are done when the behavior is internally ethical and done with awareness. One who acts in such a way acts virtuously. One who acts in ways which are not internally ethical and not done with awareness does not act rightly. To act in such a way is synonymous with walking the path toward the release of suffering.^2

You must also have the right resolve, the right determination, the right will to pursue this goal. The process toward the release of suffering is not easy, simple, or brief for most people. Rather than a gradient of increased happiness, the path is dynamic and subjective, and the obstacles one faces can be extraordinarily difficult. Only with a great amount of effort can such a task be accomplished. One must be constantly vigilant about discarding wrong understanding, acquiring right understanding, and behaving ethically. Only one who proceeds by making such an effort can be rid of suffering.

You must also be sharp. You must be keenly aware of your current experience, without falling into assumptions, misunderstandings, or convention. You must be sincerely present to the actual conscious experience, the phenomena which presently exist. You must not slip into inattentiveness or forgetfulness lest you stray from acting in accordance with the path toward the release from suffering. Only one who remains ardently on the path, with a correct understanding of the nature of reality, with a correct intention toward that reality, who acts ethically, and who has the right determination can expect to progress on the path toward the cessation of suffering.

If one has done all of these things, one need only to concentrate rightly. One who, having done these things, concentrates rightly, achieving Samadhi and one-pointedness, has no barriers between themselves and ultimate understanding. They are truly virtuous and may become free of the experience of suffering.

^1. This is an intensification of traditional Buddhist rhetoric. Buddhism, being more welcoming than not to all levels of spiritual development, doesn’t set the bar so high here and doesn’t require one to drop physicalism to adopt Buddhist practices. For our purposes on this sub, I think physicalism being thrown out is fundamental to right view.

^2. ‘Ethical conduct’ has different implications depending on the way one interprets it. Being kind, talking kindly, and working at a job where you don’t manufacture guns or slaughter livestock is the conventional interpretation, emphasis on “conventional”. For this sub, consider the ethical obligation to the furthering of one’s practice to be the ultimate obligation, with conventional morality and ethics being of secondary (but non-zero) importance. Being friendly rather than unfriendly is of benefit to you and other beings and removes the seeds of would-be hindrances and latent mental stress – but of more glaring importance is that you remain devoted to your highest ideals, which have little to do with the dreaming world.

Thanks to mindseal for some well-advised clarifications on differences between my interpretation and Buddhist canon.