Simple Beginners’ Buddhism.

Part Two: The second Noble Truth      

The cause of suffering.

  The cause of suffering is an image of ourselves engraved in the mind – a graven image. We have made an idol of ourselves, and hold this up before us as a distorted mirror. This is a created “I” that we cling to, defend and project. This false prophet is also known as ego, and is the very cause of our suffering.

This is easy to see, if we only stand back and realise what we actually are. We are that which sees all this going on, but is obscured.

We are primordial purity, and wisdom free from elaborations – empty, uncontaminated, intelligent space. At some time, this primordial purity became excited about ‘being’. It became attracted to a self image. This created a desire for ornamentation which filled this uncontaminated space, obscuring primordial purity. When our essential essence forgot its true nature, ignorance was born. Space became filled ever since.

Now we constantly maintain this mistaken state, with assistance from the negative emotions. Instead of empty essence expressing itself as compassion, it now expresses itself as selfishness…me.

This ‘me’ now judges everything as real, thus creating hope and fear, and the three poisons are born: Hope, Fear and Ignorance. From these three negative emotions – the main one being Ignorance – we create our world.

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