Suffering Is Vital To Achieve Happiness

         In Buddhist ethics, suffering is the center of how to open up your heart. "Suffering is the means the Buddha used to liberate himself, and it is also the means by which we can become free" (Hahn 3). This quote summarizes how Buddhist ethics arose and work. When we suffer and realize and pinpoint exactly what the suffering is, only then can we act. When we find out what caused the suffering, we can plan an action to counteract the suffer and turn it into happiness. This principle directly relates to a life situation that I bet not only I have been a part of. 

Relationships Can Be a Cause of Suffering

           After a rough break-up, I had to really figure out what exactly was bothering me. It took me a long time to figure that out, and during that time my mood never got better. Once I figured it all out in my head, exactly what was bothering me, it opened up my heart again for happiness in which I acted on. But this ideology is vague and broad, to specify suffering in Buddhist ethics we must look at the Four Noble Truths.

           More specifically, the Four Noble Truths show us how suffering correlates in Buddhist ethics. The First Noble Truth is flat out suffering. Happiness doesn't exist without suffering, a point that is boldly made throughout Buddhist ethics. The Second Noble Truth is how the suffering arose to be an issue within your heart. The answer to this MUST be answered to move on. The Third Noble Truth is stopping the actions that cause the suffering. This real truth of this truth is that healing is very achievable, and not impossible by any means. The Fourth Noble Truth and final one is the "path that leads to refraining from doing things that cause us to suffer" (Hahn 11). This truth is by far the most important in making sure we don't suffer again. As a crude example, it is one thing to stop a drug addition, but the real hard part is to get rid of it completely and refrain from the suffering, even during hard times.

          

           Luckily my life has not had any repeated suffering enough to portray this Fourth Noble Truth, but the drug addiction example is a prime example of how repeated cessation of drug use is the hard part, not just stopping for one day or even one month. The Chinese translate this truth as the "'Path of Eight Right Practices': Right View, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Dilligence, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration" (Hahn 11). I like this translation because it really portrays the complexity and utmost importance of this Fourth Noble Truth to our lives with all the different aspects in our life in that one quote. There is no such thing as peace if there was no such thing as suffering.

Drug Abuse is A Good Example of the 4th Noble Truth