Buddhism has taught me to look in depth at connections and make-ups of objects

“If you recognize and accept your pain without 

running away from it, you will discover that 

although pain exists, joy also exists.”

(Hanh 121)

The two truths are among the core of the Buddhist beliefs, including becoming aware of surroundings and various ways of looking at objects. The connections and ways that certain objects evolve and exist because of other objects. Relative truth is looking at an object in relationship with other objects and realizing it’s existence in the world. For one thing to be it’s own individual object and have a name, it must have a relationship with something else in the world. I think that this is so important in the world because it allows people to realize worth and significance of objects. I am short, but I am only know that because both people and I have noticed that there are many taller people in the world. This means that the concept "small" is only significant when it's opposite is also connected, "tall." It is important for all objects to exist otherwise we would have nothing. 

All absolute truths are contained within relative truths. Relative looks at the physicality of the objects and their relations, and absolute truth includes the inner essence and origin of an object. Buddha does not say that one truth is better than the other, because he realizes that judgements should not be made because circumstances and opinions can change, and humans tend to think objects are “bad” because they are simply disliked. This can easily help me not be so quick to judge and learn about where an object came from in the first place and what it's related to. For example, when a person is having a bad day or they are in a bad mood, it is not good to make judgements about them being mad at me. This idea is also shown within the differences between suffering and joy. Both suffering and joy contain each other, and one may be “bad” simply because humans have learned not to like it. To me, cockroaches are "bad" because they're gross insects that I would rather not have contact with. Ever. Hanh explains that the truths "try and go in the direction of increased happiness," which is what all humans should strive for (Hanh 121). Suffering and joy may also cause one another, but there would be no suffering if joy didn’t exist, and vice versa. In field hockey, for example, it is hard to do conditioning and practice for hours on end, but we know that it will help the team and make us that much stronger than all the other teams. It is so positive to realize that joy can come from suffering, but people need to realize that all "bad" things end. Absolute truth is more deep and complex than that of relative. This truth is not just about the objects and their relationships to other objects, but rather the origins and make-ups that they have. 

Absolute truth can be shown in the waves in the ocean. The individual wave, high or low, is considered relative truth, whereas the water as a whole that both originates the wave and is the water that the wave disintegrates into is the absolute truth. The wave relates to the idea that "Yoga is translated as 'union'" (Satchidananda 4). I think that "union" is the best possible description of an absolute truth and has really taught me that things in the world may irritate me, and may be things that I do not like, but they are also a part of me because the world is one union, which makes many parts of the world easier to accept and understand. This is also involved with the thought of emptiness because if one object didn’t exist, neither would anything else, because everything, in one way or another, makes everything else. 

Alissa Doiron