Hi,
I just want to raise some questions that you don’t have to give me an answer, but rather, you may ask and know it yourself
- What of the Awakened One’s teachings do you care about?
- Why do you care about those teachings?
- What drove you into searching and coming to the Awakened One’s teachings? What happened before that?
For some people, the answer to these questions is dissatisfaction (stress, sufferings, discontentment), they are aware of the dissatisfaction they themselves or other people experience (such as losing a family member), and they seek a way out, release from such dissatisfaction (stress, sufferings, discontentment) in life (pointed out in DN 22 - Thanissaro “Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful; separation from the loved is stressful; not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.”)
If what claims to be the Awakened One’s teachings doesn’t help you solve the problems, end dissastisfaction in your life, will you care? Why? What does it bring to you? Is it what you really want?
What I care throughout the nikayas is the four noble truths and their detailed expansion (a part of them or entirely) such as the noble eightfold path, dependent origination, five clinging-aggregates, six sense bases, four establishings of mindfulness, seven factors for awakening, impermanent - dissatisfactory - not-self. I think the Awakened One’s statement in MN 22 (Thanissaro) stated that: “Both formerly and now, monks, I (the Awakened One) declare only stress and the cessation of stress” means a concise version of the four noble truths (the first and third noble truths as the result, implied that the second and fourth noble truths as corresponding causes).
To sum up, the big question is what do you really want (in your life) and why.
For more information: https://goo.gl/rBf3i6
Cheers