It is useful to remember that Shakyamuni lived to be almost 80 and preached the dharma for 49 years to all kinds and levels of living beings. It is said the Buddha offered 84,000 dharma gates to counter the 84,000 character faults of living beings. The Four Noble Truths were the foundation: 1-life in samsara was suffering or dukkha, 2-the source or origin of dukkha was our ignorance and attachment, 3-the cessation of dukkha could lead to nirvana, and 4-the middle path that leads to nirvana that is neither the extreme of hedonism or asceticism. “The Eight-fold Path” was presented in later teachings as the three foundations of morality, concentration, and wisdom. Morality was the essential teaching on cultivation–how you treated your family, friends, co-workers, and leaders. This was how you learned to behave like a Buddha. The Buddha and others who were more advanced on the spiritual path were your role models–those whose behavior was superior and reflected the thinking, speech, and action of holy beings. Correct cultivation was necessary to enter concentration and train the mind, and both were necessary to gain the wisdom required to become a Buddha. Another way of understanding this path can be found in the “Eleven Principles.” Shakyamuni Buddha, like H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, stressed concrete action and did not make things theoretical or too abstract to be of use to ordinary living beings.
Click for more on What The Buddha Taught, a popular book by a Sri Lankan Theravada monk.
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