Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
120[2] Medit at ion (sāmadhi), whic h co mp ris e s Gotama’s revised yoga disc iplines,
under the headings of right effort, mindfulness and c onc entration.
[3] Wisdom (paññā): the two virt ues of right understanding and right resolve
enable an aspirant, by me a n s of moralit y and medit at ion, to understand the
Buddha’s Dhamma, enter int o it ‘direc t ly’ and integrate it int o his or her daily life in
the way that we shall discuss in the following c hapt er.
If t here is any truth to the st ory that Go t a ma gained enlightenment at Bodh
Gayā in a single night, it c ould be that he ac quired a su dden, absolut e certainty
that he really had discovered a me t h o d that would, if followed energet ic ally, bring
an earnest seeker to Nibbāna. He had not ma d e t his up; it was not a new c reat ion
or an invent ion of his own. On the c ont rary, he always insist ed th at he had simply
discovered ‘a path of great ant iquit y, an anc ient t rail, traveled by human beings in
a far -off, dist ant era.’ The other Buddhas, his predecessors, had taught t his path an
imme a s u ra b ly long t ime ago, but t his anc ient knowledge had faded over the years
and had been ent irely forgotten. Go t a ma insist ed that t his insight was simply a
statement of things ‘as they really are’; the path was written int o the very st ruc t ure
of existence. It was, therefore, the Dh a mma , par excellence, bec ause it eluc idated
the fundamental princ iples that govern the life of the cosmos. If me n , w o me n ,
animals and gods kept to t his path, they c ould all attain an enlightenment that
would bring them peace and fulfilment , bec ause they were no longer st ruggling
against t heir deepest grain.
But it mu s t also be understood that the Four Noble Truths do not present a
t heory that can be judged by the rational int ellec t alone; they are not simply
notional verit ies. The Buddha’s Dh a mma was essent ially a me t h o d , and it stands or
falls not by it s metaphysical ac uit y or it s sc ient ific accuracy, but by the extent to
whic h it works. The truths c laim to bring suffering to an end, not bec ause people
subscribe to a salvific creed and to c ert ain beliefs, but bec ause they adopt
Gotama’s program or way of life. Over the c enturies, me n and w o me n have indeed
found that t his regimen has brought them a me a s u re of peace and insight. The
Buddha’s c laim, echoed by all the other great sages of the Axial Age, was that by
reac hing beyond themselves to a realit y that transc ends t heir rational
understanding, me n and w o me n b e c o me fully human. The Buddha ever c laimed
that his knowledge of the Four Noble Truths was unique, but that he was the first
person, in t his present era, to have ‘realized’ them and ma d e th em a realit y in his
own life. He found that he had extinguished the c raving, hat red and ignoranc e that
hold humanity in t hrall. He had attained Nibbāna, and even though he was st ill
subjec t to physic al ailment s and other vic issit udes, nothing c ould touc h his inner
peace or c ause him serious me n t a l pain. His me t h o d had worked. ‘The holy life has
been lived out to it s c onc lusion!’ he c ried out triumphant ly at the end of that
mo me n t o u s night under the bodhi tree. ‘What had to be done has been
ac c omplished; t here is nothing else to do!’
Those of us who do not live according to the Buddhist program of moralit y and
medit at ion have, therefore, no me a n s of judging t his c laim. The Buddha was always
quit e c lear that his Dh a mma c ould not be understood by rational thinking alone. It
only revealed it s t rue signific anc e when it was apprehended ‘direc t ly,’ according to
yogic me t h o d s , and in the right et hic al context. The Four Noble Truths do ma ke