A Summary of the the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path

by Lori Gardi

The Four Noble Truths

Buddha was like a doctor:

1-He identified the disease called suffering.

2-He realized that there was a cause; attachments and delusions.

3-He found a cure.

4-He wrote the prescription; the Eightfold Noble Path.

The Eightfold Noble Path

Right View

To see THINGS as they really are.

To understand the impermanence and imperfection of THINGS.

Right View enhances Right Thought and Right Action.

Right Intention

Intentions control our actions.

One intends before one does.

Right Intention precedes Right Action and Right Speech.

Right Speech

            Has to do with ethical conduct; moral discipline.

            Avoid lying.

            Avoid gossiping.

            Avoid harsh words.

            Avoid idle chatter.

In other words, tell the truth, to speak friendly and gently and to talk only when necessary. In our society, talking is highly overrated.

They who talk lots, says nothing. They who talks little, say lots. IMHO

Right Action

            Also has to do with ethical conduct and moral discipline.

            Poor actions lead to poor states of mind (cause delusions).

The principle is based on abstinence; so it’s more what you don’t do rather than what you do (do).

Abstain from doing harm to others intentionally.

Abstain from dishonesty; stealing and deceiving.

Abstain from sexual misconduct.

In other words, act kindly and compassionately, be honest, respect the belongings of others, and keep sexual relationships harmless to others.

Right Livelihood

The five types of businesses that are harmful to undertake are:

1. Business in weapons: trading in all kinds of weapons and instruments for killing.
2. Business in human beings: slave trading, prostitution, or the buying and selling of children or adults.
3. Business in meat: "meat" refers to the bodies of beings after they are killed. This includes breeding animals for slaughter.
4. Business in intoxicants: manufacturing or selling intoxicating drinks or addictive drugs.
5. Business in poison: producing or trading in any kind of toxic product designed to kill.

Right Effort

            Mental energy is the force behind right effort.

            It creates wholesome/good and unwholesome/bad states of mind.

            Can fuel desire, envy, aggression, and violence (unwholesome).

Can also fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness (wholesome).

            Fueling good mental energy generates wholesome states of mind.

            Fueling poor mental energy generates unwholesome states of mind.

            There four ways to generate Right Effort:

1.      prevent the arising of unwholesome states,

2.      abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen,

3.      encourage wholesome states that have not yet arisen

4.      maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen.

PREVENT; ABANDON, ENCOURAGE, MAINTAIN

In other words, prevent bad habits from occurring, abandon old bad habits, encourage good habits, maintain good habits.

Right Mindfulness

            Cognition, controlled thinking, anchored in clear perception.

            Being aware of the process of conceptualization.

            To keep the mind properly grounded in the present moment.

            What do we need to be mindful of:

1.      the body

2.      our feelings

3.      our state of mind

4.      other (phenomenon)

Yoga and meditation are good medicine, helping one to remain mindful along the path.

Right Concentration

            To attain a state where all mental faculties are unified.

            To stop chasing after things or thoughts.

            To attain quite or tranquility, so we can “hear the voice of the universe”.

            Concentrate on wholesome thoughts and actions.

            Right Concentration is often referred to as Right Meditation.

            Be mindful of the breathing. The breath is a mirror of how we are.

           

When the mind is scattered and filled with thoughts, all you see is ordinary reality or relative reality since our perception of reality is based on information that is subject to interpretation. When the mind is clear, you see other possible interpretations of reality. When the mind is no longer torturing you with endless noise called our thoughts, clear thinking is possible.

The first seven steps in the Eightfold Path are in preparation for Right Concentration, since, if you defy the other seven, you would not be able to practice clear mind concentration.

Cultivation of the Eightfold Path leads directly to Right Knowledge and Right Liberation.

Right Knowledge

            Seeing things as they really are by direct experience.

            Deep insight into the ultimate reality.

           

Right Liberation

Self-awakening.

A result of Right Knowledge.

                       

Only through the medicine of the Eightfold Path, can true Liberation from the disease of suffering be achieved.

References

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/ritepath.pdf

http://www.tamqui.com/buddhaworld/Noble_Eightfold_Path

“Everything I know about the “Universe”,  I learned from the Mandelbrot set”.

         The OM Particle

First, I want to introduce you to the Mandelbrot set. 

This is the most interesting mathematical object ever discovered. Even Benoit Mandelbrot himself didn’t “grok” the importance of what he had found. Everything I know about the Universe I learned from the Mandelbrot set and that is what I hope to be able to teach you. The Mandelbrot set is my muse, my mentor and my very best friend. What fractal geometry taught me was that very simple mathematical rules can be used to generate very complex behaviours. In other words, the “theory of the universe” can be very simple. If it were hard to make a Universe, it would never have come into being in the first place. Many people believe that a complex universe must have a complex theory but this is not true. In a fractal Universe, complexity comes from simplicity. The theory I am about to teach you is simplex. In other words, it involves simple math and simple logic, but it is very hard to explain. The reason it is hard to explain is because the standard language of theoretical physics has led you to believe certain things are true that are likely not true. The big bang for instance, in its current form, cannot be true. The universe did not begin in a “hot dense soup” but more likely began as a “cold dense superfluid”. This is what I discovered when I “calibrated” the Universe.

Another thing I have learned from studying nature with my own eyes and not my mathematical mind, is the following: NATURE DOES NOT DO MATH. Math is not a requirement for understanding the concepts of The OM Particle theory. All you need is an imagination and an open mind. Closed minds will not be able to understand this. The language of theoretical physics has been all but solidified by all the books and papers written in the last 100 years. In order for me to teach this, I need to unwind the language and to some extent, or start from scratch. Some of you will not like this. On the other hand, if you don’t have a vested interest in the language of theoretical physics, you will likely have a better chance at understanding this theory. This is a good thing.

Here is an overview of my findings.

• There exists three distinct domains of existence: ether, anti-ether and emergent-ether. 

• Ether corresponds to the central black inner region of the Mandelbrot set. I often refer to this as a black hole or quasi black hole. It corresponds to the contracting part of the Universe and manifests as the strong force, dark matter, and black holes. Ether is attracted to ether and ether repels everything else. Ether is emptiness and stillness. In its purest form, it is empty of space, empty of matter and empty of motion.

• Anti-ether corresponds to the region of the Mandelbrot set that is inside the outer circle but outside the black-hole region. This is analogous to the photon sphere of a black hole and I sometimes refer to this region as a white hole. Anti-ether is not attracted to anything but is repelled by Ether. Anti-ether corresponds to the expanding part of the Universe and manifests as space via radiation (ie. light), magnetism and dark energy. Anti-ether is otherwise known as empty space or space without matter. Space manifests AS ether in motion.

• Emergent-ether is the bright yellow region surrounding the black-hole region of the Mandelbrot set. It is an event horizon in the truest sense. This is where ether and anti-ether interact. Emergent-ether corresponds to particles of matter. Matter has elements of both ether and anti-ether. Space is the expression of ether in motion and matter is the expression of space in motion via ether. Without space, there can be no matter and without ether, there can be no space.

• Ether is self-centring. This is probably one of the most important concepts to understand. This is why there is a nucleus at the centre of all atoms and a black hole at the centre of all galaxies. Magnets also have a self-centering mechanism which I will get into a bit later. Magnets are actually the key to understanding the physical manifestation of the Mandelbrot set in nature.

This is it. This is all that exists. Ether (emptiness), anti-ether (space), and emergent-ether (matter in space). But the most important thing is this: without emptiness, no “thing” could possibly exist in nature. Ether is primordial. Ether comes first. 

To be continued…

The OM Particle Theory by Lori Gardi

There are three very important and interconnected concepts at work in the OM particle theory. They are the concepts of: Emptiness, Fullness and Emergence. This is all you need to know. Everything we can see (and everything we can't see), owes its existence to emptiness, fullness and emergence. Emergence is the "visible" universe in motion. It is evolution, it is flow and it is change. Experiments can only detect things that change, but there is much more going on that can't be detected. Emptiness cannot be detected by an experiment.  Only fullness (space) and emergence (radiation and matter) can be detected by experiments. Emptiness is incommensurate to fullness. Emergence has components of both emptiness and fullness. Mass, electricity and gravity are emergent properties of emptiness, fulness and emergence.

Question: I can understand fullness, and emergence is pretty straight forward. But what is emptiness?

Yes emptiness is one of the hardest concepts to understand.

Emptiness has many names: counter-space, null-space, anti-space zero-space, negative-space and zero-point. The terms "anti", "counter" and "negative" all imply the concept of opposite and technically, emptiness does not have an opposite. The term "null space" is not quite right because it contains the word "space" and emptiness is empty of space. Zero point is also not emptiness since emptiness is empty of space and, without space, there is no “where” to define a point. Emptiness is also empty of the concept of zero so “zero point” cannot represent emptiness. Yes, EMPTINESS DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A ZERO. 

Emptiness is empty of matter AND it is empty of space. It is not, however, completely empty. In fact it is practically full. Emptiness is everything in the universe that is NOT space and matter. And apparently, this makes up about 90 percent of the Universe. It is dark matter and dark energy. This is exactly the Buddhist concept of emptiness. They very well know the importance of this concept.

This is the most important concept to “grok” if you want to understand the OM particle theory.

Emptiness IS the primordial ether. 

Emptiness is a black hole. It is the strong force and as it turns out, it is also the "light force". No, I'm not kidding. Without primordial ether (emptiness), there would be no light, there would be no space, there would be no matter AND...there would be no "nothing". Yes, even "nothing" would NOT exist. This is one of the hardest concepts to understand. It is easy to understand space occupied by matter and space empty of matter (empty space) but it is very difficult to understand “something” as being empty OF space. 

Maybe I can explain this better in a poem:

Null space

is not really “a space”,

it is empty of space,

it is emptiness.

There is no place

if there is no space,

and there is no space

in emptiness.

Emptiness cannot be detected by an experiment. Experiments can only detect "spatial" things and emptiness is non spatial. And yet, the whole of the visible and invisible universe depends on it. This is the most important concept to understand if you want to understand the true nature of life, the Universe and everything. If you can understand this concept, then you can understand everything. 

Emptiness is "real”… and it's spectacular.

The Fractal Cosmological Principle

Every point in space and time is different.
Every point in space and time is unique and special.
Every point in space and time is an important piece of the cosmological puzzle.

Each life on earth is different.
Each life on earth is unique and special.
Each life on earth is an important piece of the cosmological puzzle.

FractalWoman