There is a series of practices in some Buddhist traditions that revolve around a series of “slogans”. One such slogan is, “All dharma agrees at one point.” Pema Chodron very succinctly explains the meaning of this statement:
“The entire Buddhist teachings (dharma) are about lessening one’s self-absorption, one’s ego-clinging. This is what brings happiness to you and all beings.”
It is also helpful to have different translations, so:
All that is conditioned is impermanent,
All that is tainted is suffering,
Nirvana is peace,
All phenomena are empty and devoid of self.
There is so much to learn and so little time in the day
Mental Note:If I ever meet TheStumps on the street - Do not ask him this.
What if we met in the gutter? This is not really the street as such. What response would I get then?
Advice to a drug addict may be as simple as “Stop taking fucking drugs? Get over it!”
It is very true, accurate, and faultless advice and any fool can see this – but it is advice that is devoid of listening.
Sometimes allot must be said to explain very little.
I can summarize Mt. McKinley as, “Really Big”, but that doesn’t really convey anything existentially about it.
For that, you have to climb the bastard yourself.
What I’ve figured out, at least in regards for myself, is that it’s not about how high you get up that mountain. It’s about truly experiencing whatever your adventure is in regards to getting up that mountain, however high you go; even if you just get to buy a ticket to go and never get the chance to go any farther.
You never actually get to know just when you are going to bight it.
But regardless if you think this is it or whether you think there is more.
At least one thing is true; this is the last time you get to be you, right here, right now, and with these people.
Revere it while you can.
Worship it while it is alive.
Honor it before you regret it.
Discover who you are in it before you leave yourself there, in the time that you once were in, wherever you were when you were there.
It’s really simple.
Pay attention to the simplest fact about life; it’s the most humbling and soft fact about life.
You only have life by not having any moment in it faster than you lose grasp of them.
Savor every taste possible to experience that naturally passes you.
Sit and taste the wind on your skin.
Shut the fuck up and listen.
There’s an incredible vibration emblazoned in existing that permeates through every sense all at once.
Don’t miss the real angelic concert.
I spent a couple of days practicing crevasse rescue on Muldrow. The weather closed in and the climb aborted. Truth? I was relieved. Denali isn’t a place for fools, only angels. Oddly, I found what I was seeking hanging in harness 30 foot down in a crevasse as the rescue dummy. If you want to confront yourself, I highly recommend it. Take clean underwear.
This is not Buddhism in a nutshell, which isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with it. There’s a lot that’s right about it, in my opinion. But this is not the Buddhist view. It is important to actually listen to what highly trained Buddhist masters have to say. Taking some Zen snippet out of context and making whatever you want out of it is not what Buddhism is about. Chogyam Trungpa called that “spiritual materialism”, which Wiki sums up as “mistakes spiritual seekers commit which turn the pursuit of spiritualism into an ego building and confusion creating endeavor. This is based on the idea that ego development is counter to spiritual progress.”
Traleg Kyabgon elaborates:
Importantly, in order to further clarify the view of the “middle way”, Traleg Rinpoche goes on to say:
What would interest me is, how do the four seals of Dharma fit in with the four noble Truths? When I read the four seals (All that is conditioned is impermanent, All that is tainted is suffering, Nirvana is peace, All phenomena are empty and devoid of self) I would place them in the first truth of suffering.
The Four Noble Truths:
the truth (or reality) of suffering (Skt. duḥkha-satya) which is to be understood,
the truth (or reality) of the origin of suffering (Skt. samudaya-satya), which is to be abandoned,
the truth (or reality) of cessation (Skt. nirodha-satya), which is to be actualized, and
the truth (or reality) of the path (Skt. mārga-satya), which is to be relied upon.
Surely “nirvana is peace” is related to cessation of suffering? Anyway, I’m not sure if there’s a definitive traditional answer to your question in an overall sense. I suspect you won’t find a sort of one-to-one correspondence described anywhere.
Using Google, I found this talk by Tai Situ Rinpoche. In it, he states, “The four great seals of Mahamudra are closely linked to the Four Noble Truths that Lord Buddha taught the first time he turned the Wheel of Dharma. The Four Noble Truths are the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path leading to freedom from suffering and pain. Let us look at each verse of the four seals more closely.” He then goes into an in-depth explanation of the meaning of the four seals and their purpose for the practitioner.
I think when you learn about the the Four Seals in a more in-depth way, and the Four Noble Truths in a more in-depth way, relating them directly to each other may cease to an issue. You’ll simply see how the whole thing hangs together - how it’s all connected. That’s just my own sense of it by the way, so take that with a grain of salt.
