Lesson 3 – Siddhartha Guatama – Part Three
Siddhartha Guatama, ‘the Buddha’
For this session we will be looking at the Second, Third and Fourth Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path (the Fourth Noble Truth) and Interdependent Origination. Please read and ponder the attached readings, and consider the following three study questions:
- The Eightfold path starts with Right Understanding. Why is that the appropriate place to begin?
- How does cause and effect work in our misunderstanding of ourselves and the world?
- What is the concept of emptiness so central to the teaching of the Heart Sutra?
When pondering the wheel of Dependent Origination (available below) it is very important to remember that it was taught in a different Age and under a different constellated energy. The Buddha lived and taught in the Age of Aries and the teaching of Dependent Origination belongs very much to that Age. The Age of Aries was all about absoluteness and self-discipline, abstinence from the excesses of the previous Taurean Age and subduing its decadence. Hence the emphasis given to craving, clinging and attachment in the teaching of the wheel. In our current Aquarian era, with its offering of greater awareness and the importance of self-love rather than self-discipline, this is less relevant; our core problem, however, still remains our wilful ignorance, our stubborn refusal to see things as they are.
The 12 Links of Dependent Origination
Lesson Three: Video One
Lesson Three: Video Two
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