There was a prince around 500BC called Siddhartha (Sid Arthur)
He lived the first 20 years or so of his life within the kingdom being treated as a Prince (TAFKAP)
He was fine with this, but in his mid twenties he began to feel a bit confined and decided he wanted to know what was outside his protected environment. His dad (Elvis) agreed to let him go out and see the people he'd one day be ruling over. They agreed on a week next Tuesday.
Elvis sent out word to the kingdom that a week on Tuesday only the pretty young people were to be allowed outside. All the elderly and ill were to be kept in doors. He didn't want Sid to get the wrong impression.
Tuesday arrived. Sid went out on his trip and for the most part it went to plan. However, there were a couple of people out in the streets (Mike Skinner) who weren't supposed to be seen. I think one bloke had some horrible illness, another one was old and not far from death's door and a third was a monk with a begging bowl seeking spiritual enlightenment.
Having seen these people Sid's view of the world changed. He realised there was suffering in the world and decided to forgo his cushy lifestyle to go and sit in the woods and find his inner self.
He sneaked out one night leaving behind his wife, PS3 and plasma TV and sat in the woods on his own. After doing this for some time and realising he couldn't find anything supernatural within himself he came up with his 4 step program for enlightenment or freedom from suffering.
The following are the 4 steps, or as they've come to be known, the 4 noble truths. Brilliant how he could narrow it down to only 4 steps.....
[taken from The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga by Marvin Levine]
1. The truth of Dukkha (suffering): We are all vulnerable to a multitude of suffering experiences such as hunger, pain, fear loneliness, hatred and so on.
2. The truth of Tanha (craving): We are vulnerable because of the way human nature is constituted. Specifically, we are a bundle of urges that push and pull from within. Urges, for example, to obtain food, drink, sexuality, companionship; to escape pain, boredom, irritation.
3. The truth of Nirvana (Liberation from Dukkha): Our vulnerability can be ended. We can attain freedom from Dukkha. We do this by changing ourselves, by transforming our cravings. We can subdue these overpowering urges that push us now one way, now another.
4. The truth of Magga (The Eight-Fold Path): Liberation from Dukkha is attained by the practice of eight disciplines. These disciplines entail the cultivation of:
1. Right understanding
2. Right thoughts
3. Right Speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right mindfulness
7. Right effort
8. Right meditation
...I think what really happened is SId went out into the woods and came up with his 11 step program. He was really excited about it and went around telling everyone he met, but it just didn't seem to catch on.
After getting depressed (very briefly of course, because he then applied his 11 steps to sort himself out) he went back to the kingdom to speak to the head of PR. It was probably the PR guy who suggested cramming the last 8 steps into a single Noble truth (this was a little-exploited loop hole that only the marketing types were aware of.) That was all it took to get the ball rolling.
Christianity seems to have done ok, but I suspect it would be doing even better if the 10 commandments had been the 2 Noble Commandments (namely 1 a,b,c,d,e and 2a,b,c,d,e)
J
