The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism:
They are the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. More simply put, suffering exists; it has a cause, it has an end, and it has a cause to bring about its end.
If you are unhappy with your life, then Buddhism provides a way out. The Buddha taught that the root cause of all unhappiness and suffering is our Desires or Cravings – today we would simply use the word Addictions. Therefore, the path to personal freedom and happiness lies in overcoming our addictions; it really is as simple as that!
We live today in a highly addictive society; we are indeed a Nation of Addicts. We can list some of the more obvious addictions: Alcohol, Tobacco, Caffeine, Cocaine and other hard drugs, Pharmaceutical medicines, Sugar, Chocolate, Gambling, Pornography, Computer games, TV, Sex, Shopping, even Facebook. Each of us, to a greater or lesser extent, is trapped within a complex web of interrelated addictions. None of us are completely addiction-free. And our lives are seriously impacted by our addictions, many of which we are blind to – and which cause us all the problems we face in life.
Traditional Buddhism
Traditional Buddhism offered us a path out of our own suffering. Buddhist Meditation and Mindfulness provides us with a method of transcending and overcoming our addictions. But it is a long slow process that might take several lifetimes to achieve successfully. For that reason, I became interested in the applied religious philosophy of Scientology, back in the 1970s. Scientology (the study of knowledge) claims to be a modern version of Buddhism, also designed to cure our mental problems, but offering a much faster and more high-tech approach, based on its sophisticated form of psychotherapy called Auditing (literally
‘listening’). Over the last fifty years, many people have found this a highly effective and more rapid way of exerting self-control over our addictions – like a high-tech Buddhism.
I explain how Scientology techniques can be extremely beneficial in my recent book ‘The Significance of Scientology’, available to buy now. Combined with other practices like Yoga, and the judicious use of medicinal Cannabis, we call this approach LifeTech – living technology, or techniques for living. We believe that our combined approach – Yoga, Cannabis & Scientology – offers an effective and realistic method of achieving greater self-control in life, self-realisation and personal happiness.
The Significance of Scientology, available here.
