inevitably suffer when our actions prove inadequate. This pattern repeats itself at eachlevel of awareness.2.There is a cause to sufferingIn his excellent exposition of the insights that follow from The Four Noble Truths,
Dancing With Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering
, Phillip Moffit states,Grasping after desire and believing that your happiness depends on getting itis what imprisons the mind, not the desire itself. This emphasis on theuntrained mind's compulsion to grasp desire is at the very heart of theBuddha's teaching, for it is through clinging that you create your mentalsuffering.Clinging to the fulfillment of desires is the source of suffering and clinging arisesbecause of a mistaken belief, a belief that suffering can be relieved by fulfilling a desire.There is a circularity here within which we can easily become ensnared. While Moffittrightly observes that it is the act of grasping and not the desire itself that directly causessuffering, there would be no grasping or clinging if not for the existence of the desire inthe first place. In the Alchemy of Awareness desires are interpreted as resulting fromlevel-specific unconscious drives. These drives are viewed as types of ignoranceexisting at each level of awareness.3.Suffering can endThe primary transformation occurring in each transition between the levels ofawareness is identified in The Alchemy of Awareness as the transposing of theunconscious drive of the lower level into conscious awareness at the higher level. In theprocess the lower level
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s drive is exposed to the light of awareness and thereby losesits power to act as an unconscious source of desires. At each transition another sourceof desires is exposed until, finally, at level 6, all drives have been brought intoawareness leaving no remaining unconscious source of desires.4.There is a way to end sufferingIn Buddhist tradition the way to end suffering is by following The Eightfold Path. TheEightfold Path consists of: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, rightlivelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. From the perspectiveof The Alchemy of Awareness the Eightfold Path can be thought of as a prescription foreffectively navigating through the transition between level 5 awareness and level 6awareness. At level 5 awareness the drive is for unity which manifests in a desire forwholeness. The Eightfold Path presents a way that leads, not to the direct satisfactionof the desire, but to the illumination of the underlying drive for unity.Right View: observation of the workings of the mindRight Intention: the priority of seeking truthRight Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood: behaving in ways that arein agreement with the values of compassion and contribution