Truth and the Way

Foreword with a Warning Is <strong>the</strong>re a way to <strong>the</strong> truth? Is truth at <strong>the</strong> end of <strong>the</strong> road <strong>and</strong> is <strong>the</strong> road a means of reaching <strong>the</strong> end? And who is going that way, <strong>and</strong> who is reaching <strong>the</strong> end? One can multiply <strong>the</strong>se questions: how to make a beginning, how to proceed, <strong>and</strong> what happens when <strong>the</strong> end is reached? And <strong>the</strong>n a very pertinent question: why should one take <strong>the</strong> trouble to make that journey at all? What is <strong>the</strong> guarantee of reaching <strong>the</strong> end? And what is <strong>the</strong> purpose of it all? To what benefit? Here is <strong>the</strong> warning:. There is no end, <strong>the</strong>re is no purpose, <strong>the</strong>re is no benefit. There is no one going that way. <strong>and</strong> no one will ever reach <strong>the</strong> end. <strong>Truth</strong> is not <strong>the</strong> end. <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> path is not <strong>the</strong> means <strong>the</strong>reto. There is no answer to <strong>the</strong> question How? And <strong>the</strong> answer to <strong>the</strong> question Why? lies within each of us. Then, why was this booklet, written <strong>and</strong> why should anybody read it? Said <strong>the</strong> Buddha: “One thing only do I teach: Woe <strong>and</strong> how its end to reach”. Dukkhañc’eva paññapemi dukkhassa ca nirodhaṁ. There is conflict in everyone of us. There is conflict in every complex, <strong>the</strong>re is decomposition in every compound, <strong>the</strong>re is self- 5