The Fourth Truth that Transforms Us

So now we move from theory to practice. In order to achieve peace of mind we have to manage and control our automatic mind. That's the medium through which our wants and desires emerge.

This fourth truth was originally made up of eight areas of our life that we have to develop and improve. It states that, if we develop these eight areas we will become the master of our wants and desires, start to see ourselves as part of the wider forms of life around us, and through these two developments, become happy and content instead of dissatisfied.

The eight areas are arranged around three wider themes: Life philosophy, Management of the Mind, Work, and Self-Discipline.

Philosophy

The first area we have to develop is how we see life. The right way to see life is what was explained in the first three truths, namely that we are programmed to be dissatisfied, that the dissatisfaction emerges from our constant wants not being met and our narrow view of our self, but that we can overcome these issues in life. This is called Right Understanding of Life.

Management of the Mind

We have to change everything we think or feel into positive, constructive, and helpful. This is Right Thinking

As part of this we have to ensure that what we say or write is also positive, constructive, and helpful to others, including ourselves. This is Right Communication.

Similarly, we have to make all of our activities and decisions positive, constructive, and helpful to others, including ourselves. This is Right Action.

Work

We should review our working life and career with a view to assessing whether it too is positive, constructive, and helpful to others, including ourselves. If it is not, we should either try to change it for the better, or leave for another job which is more in line with these ideals. This is Right Livelihood.

Discipline to Accomplish the Tasks

We need to apply effort every day to manage our mind and deepen our true understanding about ourselves and life. This is Right Effort.

In order to do this we need to develop our ability to notice our mind at all times, so that we can intervene when the mind becomes unhelpful and negative. This is Right Mindfulness.

Finally we need to be able to keep our mind on the positive, constructive, and helpful thoughts, communications, and actions we aim to do. This requires developing the ability to sustain attention, and is called Right Concentration.

Summary

So in order to transform our lives we need to understand what we are really like, believe that we can change for the better, implement self-disciplines to help us embed our new philosophy, manage our mind, align our working life with our new way of seeing and doing life, and commit the self-discipline that is required to achieve true happiness and peace of mind.