cessation
cessation
I will combine the third and fourth noble truths. The third is that the cessation of suffering is the cessation of craving or stabilising your dopaminergic environment.
The fourth is how the buddha taught to go about this:
“Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: it is this Noble Eightfold Path; that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration”
The overall gist is that they all improve your brain chemistry in a direct and measurable manner. Half of them can be thought of as trauma therapy to fix the bad programming already installed in you mind, and the other half can be thought of as preventative measures to make sure you don't get sick again.
Seeing the world for what it is: impermanent and ever-changing. Seeing yourself for what you are: impermanent and ever-changing. Seeing that you will suffer less and inflict less suffering if you stop clinging to that which is in flux.
Therapy/removal:
Make efforts to remove conditioning which causes you suffering. The approaches are laid out in great detail and only recently being emulated by the psychiatric industry.
Observe your reality as it is. Behave like a scientist gathering data and observing your internal and external world without bias. Do not believe what the Buddha taught, even: take his seeds of wisdom and look at your own reality to see whether they line up.
Spend time actively cultivating the brain chemistry necessary for letting go of old conditioning. You are aiming for a state of moderately elevated tonic dopamine with low phasic spikes. Quiet and slow wins the race.
Prevention/resilience:
Intention is everything in buddhism. Having the intention to do good will reinforce positive thought processes in your mind, and reward you with a brain chemistry that makes your world happier and warmer. Having the intention to do bad will eat you up with stress hormones.
Do not lie, do not instil hatred or division, do not intentionally hurt people with words and do not gossip.
Do not kill, steal or engage in sexual misconduct. You are pretty free to do as you like, so long as you don't hurt others.
Earn a living in a way which helps your community rather than harms it. Do not sell weapons or intoxicants. Do not kill or trade in living beings. Try to avoid working in ways which fuel greed, hatred or delusion.
The Buddha lays out a simple plan for removing the encoding which causes you suffering and for preventing new suffering for you and those you meet.
This is not dogma. This is method.
/jb202508252010