So What

　　by Ajahn Viradhammo The following teaching on the ”Four Noble Truths” is taken from a talk given by Venerable Viradhammo during a ten-day retreat conducted in Bangkok for Thai lay people, in June 1988.

　　This teaching is not aimed at just getting another kind of experience. It is about complete freedom within any experience.

　　This evening we might begin by considering the legend of the life of the Lord Buddha. Now we could consider this story as factual history. Or, we could also look at it as a sort of myth - a story that reflects back on our own development as beings seeking truth.

　　In the story we are told that before his enlightenment, the Bodhisatta {Buddha-to-be) lived in a royal family with a lot of power and influence. He was a very gifted person, and had all that any human being could wish for: wealth, intelligence, charm, good looks, friendship, respect, and many skills. He lived the princely life of luxury and ease.

　　The legend has it that when the Bodhisatta was first born, his father the king received a prediction from the wise-men. They said there were two possibilities: either this son would become a world- ruling monarch, or he would become a perfectly enlightened Buddha. Of course the father wanted his son to carry on the business of being a monarch; he didn”t want him to become a renunciate. So everybody in the palace was always trying to protect the prince. Whenever anyone grew vaguely old or sick they were taken away; nobody wanted the prince to see anything unpleasant that might cause him to leave.

　　But then at the age of twenty-nine, curiosity struck. The prince wanted to see what the world outside was like. So off he went out with his charioteer and - what did he see

　　 The first thing he saw was a sick person - all covered with sores, in pain, and lying in his own filth. A thoroughly wretched human condition.

　　”What”s that the prince asked his attendant. The attendant replied: ”That”s a sick person.” After a discussion the prince realized, for the first time, that these human bodies can become sick and painful. The attendant pointed out that all bodies had this potential. This came as a great shock to the prince.

　　The following day he went out again. This time he saw an old person: all bent over with age, shaking, wrinkled, gray-haired, barely able to hold himself up. Again, shocked by what he saw, the prince asked: ”What”s that ”That”s an old person,” the attendant replied. ”Everybody grows old.” So the prince realized that his body too had this potential to become old. With that he went back to the palace quite bewildered by it all.

　　The third time he went out, and saw a dead person. Most of the townsfolk were busy, happily waving at their attractive prince, thinking he was having a great time. But behind the crowds,. there were people carrying a stretcher with a corpse on it, going to the funeral pyre. That was a really powerful one for him. ” And what is that

　　!” he asked. So the attendant replied: ”That”s a corpse. All bodies go that way; your body, my body, they all die.” That really shocked him.

　　The next time the Bodhisatta went out he saw a mendicant monk - sitting under a tree meditating. ”And who is that he asked. The attendant replied: ”That”s a sadhu - someone who is seeking the answers to life and death.”

　　So we have this legend. Now what does this mean for you and me

　　 Is it just a historical tale to tell our children, a tale about a person who didn”t see old age, sickness or death until he was twenty-nine

　　For me, this story represents the awakening of a human mind to the limitations of sensory experience. Personally I can relate to this from a time when I was at university. I questioned life a lot: ”What is it all about ”Where is this all going to

　　 I used to wonder about deat…

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