In treating illness, in addition to therapy directed immediately against the symptoms, doctors sometimes prescribe regimens related to diet, sleep, and exercise designed to create a generally healthy body capable of resisting illness. Something similar applies to treating spiritual disorders. Of course, it is essential to remove ignorance and cravings that directly bring about the lusts causing suffering. But it is also necessary to eliminate all other conditions that make it easy for suffering to develop and to produce spiritual good health and resistance against the further occurrence of suffering.

To this end, training in eight aspects of human behavior is provided in the Eightfold Noble Path. The system inherent in this path is intended not only to eliminate temporary suffering but also to create a perfectly healthy character in which suffering will not arise under any circumstances. Buddhist training and enlightenment employ present suffering as the occasion to institute a course leading ultimately to the perfection of the character.

The last of the eight sufferings — the five aggregates — means attachment to form (physical things), perception (operation of the perception of pleasure and pain), mental conceptions and ideas (the operation of conceptions and symbols), volition (the operation of various mental processes including that of volition), and consciousness (the operation of conscious judgment and of consciousness itself). This set of aggregates refers to all phenomena, both internal to the sentient being and external in the form of environment. Since clinging to them binds the sentient being to the world of transmigration with its inherent miseries, the suffering of the five aggregates can be said to correspond to that of the world of transmigration.

The first Noble Truth sets forth three kinds of suffering: physically perceived suffering, psychological suffering resulting from the failure to fulfill desires or expectations, and the suffering of being bound to the series of transmigrations (samsara) in a world where total absence of pain and complete tranquility do not exist. (Page 47-48)

In the First Rolling of the Wheel of the Law it is said that birth is suffering, old age is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering, contact with those one hates is suffering, separation from those one loves is suffering, failure to satisfy one’s desires is suffering, and clinging to the five aggregates that compose the minds and bodies of all sentient beings is suffering. The above-mentioned sufferings of birth, old age, illness, and death are called the four sufferings, and when the other four (meeting those one hates, parting from those one loves, not being able to satisfy one’s desires, and clinging to the five aggregates) are added to these, the list is known as the eight sufferings. (Page 25)

The Eye of the Law is an intellectual understanding of the Truth arrived at through an intellectual process. But, by nature, some people are stronger in terms of emotions and willpower than they are intellectually. Such people are said to be able to attain enlightenment by means of emotion and will. In short, there are two ways to become enlightened: intellectually through the truth of the Law—and obviously the attainment of the Eye of the Law—and through faith and deliberate intention.

Enlightenment by means of faith involves complete trust in the Buddha, the Law, and the Order—the Three Treasures—and observation of the holy precepts. Of course, fundamentally, a person cannot be a Buddhist at all without this trust. But it is especially important that such trust be unshakable in persons who strive to attain enlightenment by faith alone. Those who came into direct contact with Shakyamuni were no doubt easily moved to unconditional faith by his greatness. Others, who had been instructed by members of the Order, had probably been moved to trust as a consequence of the greatness of the Buddha and the wonderful nature of the Law.

A person who has openly expressed his reverence for the Buddha, the Law, and the Order is bound to abide by the five precepts: not to take life, not to take what is not given, not to indulge in wrong sexual activity, not to tell lies, and not to drink intoxicants. When faith has been firmly established, observance of these precepts becomes absolute. Such faith is said to be as fixed and indestructible as adamant and to represent initial enlightenment on the way to the highest enlightenment by means of the path of faith. It is a state of nonretrogression comparable to that of the person who has attained the Eye of the Law.

In the Buddhist scriptures, discussion of the Eye of the Law is invariably accompanied by mention of the doctrine that whatever is subject to the condition of origination is subject also to the condition of cessation. This is a simplified expression of the Law of Causation to the effect that suffering, for example, which must have a cause, can be eliminated by the removal of that cause. The Eye of the Law is the pure and spotless eye that perceives the veracity of the Law of Causation.

The many religions that existed in India both before and after Buddhism taught personal discipline and liberation alone. Almost none of them gave thought to instructing others or society in general or to the creation of an ideal realm in the actual world. Initially, Shakyamuni left his father’s home and undertook the life of religious discipline for the realization of his own personal ideal. But when he had developed a correct view of the world and of man through observations of the nature of human life and the universe, he saw that human beings do not live in isolation. The fate of each person, intimately connected with the flow from past to present and from present to future, is further intimately connected with the fates of the people around him, with society, and with the natural environment. For this reason, individual happiness cannot result from the improvement of the individual alone. Shakyamuni realized that, because of the Law of Causation, such happiness can only result from simultaneous improvement in society and the environment. From this standpoint, he naturally adopted the policy of saving and teaching others. This characteristic attitude sets Buddhism apart from other Indian religions and philosophies and explains its spread beyond India to the rest of the world. (Page 40-41)

Śākyamuni then explained the twelve stages by means of which he attained the highest enlightenment. He divided each of the Four Noble Truths into three stages of attainment. In the first stage, he acquired theoretical understanding of the Four Noble Truths as they are. In the second stage, he put his theoretical knowledge into practice. Doing this involves a correct understanding of the nature of suffering, the extinction of the causes of suffering, the application of the ways in which those causes are eliminated and traveling the full Path. As one continues practical application in connection with the Four Noble Truths, theory and practice come to agree entirely, and one arrives at the third stage, where all the practical aims have been fulfilled. At this point, one is ready for the highest enlightenment.

Śākyamuni explained that only when he had completed these three stages was he sufficiently convinced of being a supremely enlightened Buddha to announce his nature publicly. Only then had he achieved perfect liberation, and only then had he escaped from the cycle of birth, death, and transmigration.

The Law of Causation, which is perfectly sound from the rational, ethical, and religious viewpoints and which has a universal validity enabling it to withstand any criticism, was formulated as a result of examination and criticism of all the other imperfect and irrational systems in India in Shakyamuni’s time. The Law of Causation teaches both the theoretical and practical application of the idea that there is no immortal, immutable self or soul.

The Law had never been taught in India before. It is the characteristic that sets Buddhism apart from other philosophies and religions. But though he discovered it, Shakyamuni did not create it.

This Law is an absolute truth—recognizable as true by all peoples, in all places, and at all times—existing eternally independent of the appearance in the world of a Tathagata (a term for a Buddha, Tathagata means one who has come the full Way, who has reached the truth and come to declare it). Shakyamuni merely discovered and taught the Law. (Page 29-30)