The Context for No Context
September 16, 2008
The Buddha once said that if you look back at your life or your many lifetimes, you won’t be able to find a point where you could say, before this there was no ignorance and then ignorance began. We’re all coming from ignorance, which in technical terms means that we’re coming from a position where we don’t really see the four noble truths. We don’t see our life in terms of the four noble truths. We have our own terms, our own narratives of who we are, our beliefs about the world, all kinds of knowledge and theories that actually get in the way of looking at where there’s stress and suffering, what’s causing it, and what we can do to put an end to it.