Creation itself is holy.

All life is sacred.

Human beings can awaken into enlightenment.

To awaken one must only pay attention to daily life,
the middle way. Continually feeling gratitude and awe
in one's present existence brings enlightenment.

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, gave his dharma to mankind.

Those that follow in the path of Siddhartha Gautama
are generally defined as Buddhists.

"While I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being."
- Black Elk

Now at that time a certain priest had been killed by the bite of a snake, and when they announced the matter to The Blessed One, he said:

"Surely now, 0 priests, that priest never suffused the four royal families of the snakes with his friendliness. For if, 0 priests, that priest had suffused the four royal families of the snakes with his friendliness, that priest, 0 priests, would not have been killed by the bite of a snake. And what are the four royal families of the snakes?

The Virilpakkhas are a royal family of snakes;
the Erapathas are a royal family of snakes;
the Chabyaputtas are a royal family of snakes;
the Kanhagotamakas are a royal family of snakes.

Surely, now, 0 priests, that priest did not suffuse the four royal families of the snakes with his friendliness. For surely, 0 priests, if that priest had suffused the four royal families of the snakes with his friendliness, that priest, 0 priests, would not have been killed by the bite of a snake. I enjoin, 0 priests, that ye suffuse these four royal families of the snakes with your friendliness; and that ye sing a song of defense for your protection and safeguard. After this manner, 0 priests, shall ye sing:"

'Virilpakkhas, I love them all,
The Erapathas, too, I love,
Chabyaputtas, I love them, too,
And all Kanhagotamakas.

‘Creatures without feet have my love,
And likewise those that have two feet,
And those that have four feet I love,
And those, too, that have many feet.

'May those without feet harm me not,
And those with two feet cause no hurt;
May those with four feet harm me not,
Nor those who many feet possess.

'Let creatures all, all things that live,
All beings of whatever category,
See nothing that will bode them ill!
May naught of evil come to them!"

"Give ear, 0 priests! The deathless has been gained, and I will instruct you, and teach you the Doctrine. If you will do according to my instructions, in no long time, and in the present life, you shall learn for yourselves, and shall realize and live in the possession of that highest good to which the holy life conducts, and for the sake of which youths of good family so nobly retire from the household life to the houseless one."

"Let The Blessed One teach the Doctrine, let The Happy One teach the Doctrine. There are some beings having but little moral defilement, and through not hearing the Doctrine they perish. Some will be found to understand the Doctrine and they will not perish."

-from the CullaVagga, Buddhist sacred text

The three marks of existence are also known as
the three basic truths about the condition of life.

impermanence

"If you suffer, it is not because things are impermanent. It is because you believe things are permanent. Aware of impermanence you become positive, loving and wise.

Impermanence is an instrument for our liberation.

It is safe to enjoy what is around you and within you as long as you are aware of its nature of impermanence. When you are thirsty, there is nothing wrong in enjoying a glass of water.
In fact, to truly enjoy it, you have to dwell in the present moment.

When a flower dies, we don't cry. We know it is impermanent.
If we practice awareness of the nature of impermanence, we will suffer less and enjoy life more.
If we know things are impermanent, we will cherish them in the present moment. We know that our loved ones are of an impermanent nature, so we do our best to make them happy right now."
- Thich Nhat Hanh

The first mark of existence, impermanence, points to the fact that everything, every thought,
emotion, relationship, or situation, everything that has a beginning, also has an ending.

Typically, in our search for happiness we do not live as if impermanence were true.

"When we attracted to something we tend to exaggerate qualities." - Dalai Lama

If we examine much of our motivation we find that we are always
attempting to hold onto what we adore and get rid of what we abhor.

If our situation is basically acceptable to us we feel secure and good.

We feel betrayed by our relationships or life itself when our situation changes in a way we didn't want or expect it to.

We feel that circumstances are preventing us from being happy.

Every moment brings new arising thoughts and feelings and then they fall away.

The simple truth is that the only certainty following gain is eventual loss.

The happiness or joy we expect to experience in life cannot depend on holding onto gain
if it is to be a true and sustained gain. True and sustained gain we need to find within.

egolessness
(also selflessness and ego death)

"When we take a step on the green earth,
we are aware that we are made of air, sunshine,
minerals, and water, that we are a child of earth and sky,
linked to all other beings." - Thich Nhat Hanh

You have endured many terrible griefs
but you're still under a veil -
because dying to yourself
is the fundamental principle
and you haven't adhered to it.
Your suffering cannot end
before this death is complete:
You cannot reach the roof
before climbing up the whole ladder.
How could you ever experience
your boat's total shipwreck
before you've loaded it
with the final weight?
This final weight's essential;
it's a star that summons night
and it shipwrecks the boat of error.
When your boat of self-centeredness
is finally broken and sunk,
reality becomes like a sun
flooding a cloudless sky with light.
- Rumi

There is only this moment to moment appearance of a self caused by the struggle
to become happy by holding onto what we adore and trying to prevent what we abhor.

We perpetuate our emotional suffering by believing that we are
a fixed entity who needs to be saved, protected, and freed from emotional suffering.

Emotional suffering will persist as long as we avoid at all costs
the fear that is the heart of it - that we may not be saved or protected and may suffer emotionally.

Rather than experience the fear directly, we attempt to dismantle the fear by con-vincing
ourselves that the fear is unjustified - that we will be saved, protected, and freed from emotional suffering.

People are terrified that they will be unable to tolerate the reality that they
have so very little control over - the social culture, nature and the course of events.

There are two stages of egolessness

The first stage of egolessness is characterized by the observer, signified by a
sense of emotional detachment from passing thoughts and feelings.

{"No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth. Not until thou consumest with the flame of utter detachment those veils of idle learning, that are current amongst men, canst thou behold the resplendent morn of true knowledge." - Bahá'u'lláh}

In the second stage of egolessness the notion of observer is dropped as well and there is no longer
any effort to detach from the reality of our impotence in the face of the awesome power of what is.

Here is where the quality of being undone or "burned up" by the fire emerges - the moment of redemption.

"The one to whom's unveiled the mystery of love exists no longer but is annihilated in love." - Rumi

We cultivate a practice of living based simply on direct and immediate feeling.

We recognize that we can experience life "vividly" by direct immersion in the process of living.

We can tolerate a tremendous range of emotion, and ultimately we must.

This understanding marks the transition from using spiritual knowledge as a remedy
or cure for emotional suffering to developing the courage to experience life as it is.

"The experience of psychospiritual death and rebirth reallows the conscious connection with positive memories of living life which reduces irrational drives and ambitions. Psychospiritual death and rebirth causes a shift of focus from the past and future to the present moment thus enhancing élan vital and joi de vivre – the ability to enjoy and draw satisfaction from simple circumstances of life, such as everyday activities, food, love-making, nature, music while supporting the emergence of authentic spirituality of a universal and mystical nature based on the deeply personal experience of living life fully in the present." - adapted from Stanislav Grof

pain

The third mark of existence is simply that there is pain.

We age, we become sick, we die. Feeling pain is unavoidable.

When we refuse to embrace emotional pain, we unwittingly screen out
a large portion of the range of emotional experiences that occur in the process of living.

A person who is alive and sensitive will feel sorrow.

This is so, not only because of the amount of unnecessary suffering produced by the
imperfection of our social arrangements but because of the reality of human existence.

As living sentient beings we are aware of the gap between our aspirations and
what can be achieved. In this light we understand that emotional pain is inevitable.

We have been conditioned to believe that the opposite of feeling good is not feeling bad.

To keep ourselves from not feeling bad we condition ourselves to not feel at all.

The emotional pain we experience in everyday life, the open wound in our hearts, is where compassion is born.

When compassion awakens in Sanskrit it is called Boddhicitta or awakened heart.

"To undertake the journey to God the heart must be burned with the fire of divine love." - Juan de Yepes Alvarez

"Heaven is made of the smoke of hearts that burn away." - Rumi

"The way the soul goes forth from itself is comparable to what happens when a fire is burning and flaming as it becomes a forceful blaze. The flame shoots very high in this divine union." - Saint Teresa of Avila

"There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness. When you learn to live for others, they will live for you." - Paramahansa Yogananda

When we imagine what spiritual awakening must be like we tend to imagine a dramatically relieving experience.

Sometimes this occurs but more often what usually occurs is a humbling, a wearing down of the ego.

When we acknowledge that we are in emotional pain and simultaneously acknowledge
that we are whole, we become available to others and are able to meet them compassionately.

Great emotional pain creates great tenderness that leaves our ego peeled raw and
reminds us to let go of an attempt to control things which are beyond our control.

Great emotional pain is not punishment for being bad.

It is an extremely potent opportunity to have our hearts break open and burn with fire.

Finding that we can tolerate more emotional pain than we imagined possible
we find a previously unrealized depth and breadth of being.

"When we think about what real silence is, we have to look at it from two angles; the first is to see silence through human eyes and the second is to see silence through Buddha's eyes or the universal eye. The opportunity to experience real silence occurs when we have been driven into a corner and simply cannot move an inch. This seems like a situation of complete despair, but this silence is quite different from despair, because in the area of despair, the conscious flame of human desire is still burning. But real silence is the state of human existence that passes through this despair. How can we experience this silence? Without everyday life it is impossible to experience this silence." - Katagiri Roshi

four noble truths of suffering

"Now this ... is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering."

"Now this ... is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination."

"Now this ... is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: it is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, nonreliance on it."

"Now this ... is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: it is the Noble Eightfold Path; that is, conscientious opinion, right intention, proper speech, correct action, honest livelihood, virtuous effort, laudable mindfulness, meritorious concentration."

Buddha's Zen

Buddha said: "I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil on my foot. I perceive the teachings of the world to be the illusion of magicians. I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one's eyes. I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, Nirvana as a nightmare of daytime. I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons."

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This web site is not a commercial web site and is presented for educational purposes only.

This website defines a new religious ideology to which its author adheres. The author feels that the falsification of reality outside personal experience has created a populace unable to discern propaganda from reality and that this has been done purposefully by an international corporate cartel through their agents who wish to foist a corrupt version of reality on the human race. Religious intolerance occurs when any group refuses to tolerate religious practices, religious beliefs or persons due to their religious ideology. This web site marks the founding of the religion aptly named The Truth of the Way of Life - a rational religion based on reason which requires no leap of faith, accepts no tithes, has no supreme leader, no church buildings and in which each and every individual is encouraged to develop a personal relation with God through the pursuit of the knowledge of reality in the hope of curing the spiritual corruption that has enveloped the human spirit. The tenets of The Truth of the Way of Life are spelled out in detail on this web site by the author. Violent acts against individuals due to their religious beliefs in America is considered a “hate crime.”

This web site in no way condones violence. To the contrary the intent here is to reduce the violence that is already occurring due to the international corporate cartels desire to control the human race. The international corporate cartel already controls the world central banking system, mass media worldwide, the industrial military entertainment complex of America and is responsible for the collapse of morals, the elevation of self-centered behavior and the destruction of global ecosystems. Civilization is based on cooperation. Cooperation does not occur at the point of a gun.

American social mores and values have declined precipitously over the last century as the corrupt international cartel has garnered more and more power. This power rests in the ability to deceive the populace in general through mass media by pressing emotional buttons which have been preprogrammed into the population through prior mass media psychological operations. The results have been the destruction of the family and the destruction of social structures that do not adhere to the corrupt international elites vision of a perfect world. Through distraction and coercion the direction of thought of the bulk of the population has been directed toward solutions proposed by the corrupt international elite that further consolidates their power and which further their purposes.

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