Ethan Schroeder - Zen: Zen Guide to Achieving Tipping Point in your Life: De-stress and Find Focus

In order to understand the relevance of Zen practices, you need to know a little more about the history. The original Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was a prince who lived in his fathers palace. Instead of delighting in the richness of his surroundings, he was disturbed by what lay beyond the walls of that palace. His father had been told upon the birth of his son that the destiny that lay ahead for his child was either to be a great spiritual leader or to be a warrior. This prophecy came true when the young Siddhartha noticed that people were suffering from all kinds of disharmony in their lives, which his common sense could not at, first explain.

Meditation was something that the young prince learned as part of his spiritual studies, but when he meditated upon the question that troubled him the most, he came up with answers he was not expecting. He found that the truth was that mankind suffered as a result of the kind of life he was leading. There were several elements that came into play and the enlightenment that Siddhartha experienced allowed him to formulate the idea that if mankind was to follow a regime or pattern of behavior, it was more likely that less suffering would occur.

You need to understand that in this part of India, there was disenchantment about the traditional religions that had prevailed until this time and that it was common for people to seek a better understanding through meditation. However, after the enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama (the first Buddha) such was the strength of his knowledge that people abandoned the seemingly materialistic religious practices, in favor of taking up beliefs that were considered to be more inspired and Buddhism was one such philosophy or belief.

The fact that it spread to China, Japan and ultimately to the West gives credence to its efficiency, even on an amateur level, to improve the lives of those who chose to practice in the ways suggested by Siddhartha Gautama, 3 centuries before Christ. Those practices may have been modified over the course of those centuries, although the premise is much the same. The Four Noble Truths were devised that led to the creation of the Eight Fold Path, which will be explained in later chapters. However, one needs to understand that whatever your religion, following this form of philosophy is not in conflict with the beliefs that you hold dear. Neither is it in conflict with the lifestyle that you live in a modern time.

The Four Noble Truths hold true as much today as they did when they were created as a recipe to live a more fulfilling life. They are basically things that most people accept as normal but you cannot believe in one of them without also accepting the others in Zen. They are all truths concerning the balance of life: