Why did the fruit come before the path?
I have told a story
about a man who was under a spell and turned into a tiger. This story can
depict a clear picture of the good news the Buddha told us. The ultimate
purpose of life is about going back to our first-hand normality - to enter
Arahantship.
As for this chapter, I
will stress the goal and the path. The enlightenment of the Buddha meant that
he had seen the goal before the path. This is the significant point that people
must understand in order to grasp the essence of Buddhism.
This story might help
us to gain a clearer picture. A man was lost in a jungle. Suddenly, he found a
pond of holy water, which could offer people eternal life. When he knew that
this holy water was good for humankind, he slowly and carefully came away from
that pond and tried to remember the way to get back there.
Before the
enlightenment of the Buddha, all sentient beings were living in the darkness of
spiritual ignorance. No one knew what life was all about: What is the purpose
of life? What is the ultimate truth? What is the end of all suffering? Prince
Siddhatha was born during the time when Indian society was at the peak of
searching for the answers to those questions in all sorts of ways e.g. self-indulgence,
self-mortification, exploring into high levels of meditation, etc. Nonetheless,
no one knew exactly what was what. Ascetic Siddhartha also joined in with the
culture of searching for ultimate enlightenment. Just like the others, he tried
all kinds of methods until he was on the verge of losing his own life. All
those activities can be compared to the man lost in the jungle. However, the
enlightenment of the Buddha can be compared to the man just by chance finding
the pond of holy water or knowing that we are not tigers after all. The
enlightenment of the Buddha meant that he had found the ultimate truth or the
absolute entity, which nothing can go beyond. He subsequently called that very
thing Nibbana or Nirvana.
The ultimate truth
relates to us as an individual in the sense that it is our ultimate goal of
life, which also means the end of all suffering. This is the goal of all
sentient beings. Before that, no one knew the truth that we are not tigers.
This is how unique the Buddha is. He found something that no one ever knew
before. After his enlightenment, he knew that it was difficult for people to
understand such a thing and was inclined not to teach. However, he subsequently
thought that people had different levels of spiritual abilities; those who have
little dust in their eyes could understand. With great compassion and
loving-kindness to all sentient beings, he carefully worked out the way or the
path to that goal so that we could see the truth like him.
We can now understand
why the fruit comes before the path. According to the four noble truths, the
third noble truth or the end of suffering comes before the fourth noble
truth-the noble eightfold path. Scientifically speaking it seems illogical
because the path should come before the end. It cannot be wrong because this is
the first person’s experience. The four Noble truths are the result of the
Buddha’s unique experience just like the man who found the magic pond by
chance. If no one found out the fact that we are not tigers, there is no way we
could know the truth, is there? We would then live and struggle like tigers,
being stupid and totally ignorant for eternity. We can clearly see that without
the help of the Buddha, we wouldn’t be this lucky as far as knowing the truth
is concerned. The enlightenment of the Buddha not only benefits us humans but
also benefits all sentient beings who live in different realms of samsara
(re-incarnation). Alternatively, the enlightenment of the Buddha sends tremors
to the three worlds heaven, earth and hell.
Once we accept the
enlightenment of the Buddha, the process for us to know the truth is now based
on the normal structure of the path to the end. In the same way that we have to
follow the clear signposts to the magic pond, we have to follow the noble
eightfold path to know the ultimate truth. That’s why in Buddhism, we have a
very familiar concept of the path, the fruit and Nibbana.
We have a Thai saying
that it is extremely lucky to be born as a human-being and find Buddhism; those
who pay no interest to the dhamma practice are considered to have wasted their
precious human status. That is because they might not be so lucky in their next
life. It is a shame that most people cannot understand the true meaning of such
a saying. I hope this article can help people to have a better understanding.
Now, we reach the point of how we can follow the path to know the truth. The noble eightfold path begins with right view. This means that we must first of all accept the enlightenment of the Buddha. Without this view, we have no faith to follow the subsequent difficult practice. It means we would rather admit our tiger status and there is no need to talk further. Wise people who can understand this fundamental concept will quickly ask experts like Buddhist monks a very direct question: “Please show me the way to the find the truth.” The most direct practice to ultimate enlightenment is vipassana-bhavana or the four foundations of awareness.
We
must not be complacent nor waste time in finding ultimate truth. We cannot
possibly know anything else if we don’t know the fundamental truth about
ourselves, although we may appear to have a great deal of intellectual
knowledge.