I have arrived at the beach on the Western coast of India in a small enclave called Kudle beach. The Arabian Sea is refreshing after the tropics of the mountains. I have come to relax, to find an unexpected number of people and noise. Folks are from all over the world here; Germans, British, French and overall the Russians predominate. It appears Canadians are few. After spending 2 weeks in the Sivananda Yoga Ashram where we were to remain covered, and there was absolutely no tolerance for drugs or alcohol, it was rather a shock to arrive here in Kudle beach, where every other person is smoking something, whether it be cigarettes or marijuana. I met a Russian woman who introduced herself one evening while dining on the seafront. She said everyone is happy here, yet when I looked around I would venture to say, "Everyone is looking for happiness here." There is some degree of happiness to be found, as there are many couples travelling with children who gleefully play in the water; mostly, however, I see people attached to someone or something, and their telephones primarily. Searching for some kind of fulfillment other than in the pure simple quality of the present moment. Somehow, I found myself searching for that someone, too, to be with, to talk to, to fill the void, to impregnate the space that briefly feels like happiness. I took to my book again instead, Phillip Moffitt's Dancing with Life, which provided a comforting companion. Last year while attending a conference with Joseph Goldstein, Phillip Moffitt's book Dancing with Life jumped off the table to me. Dancing with Life offers a deeper investigation of the four noble truths with 12 insights that the Buddha taught to accompany the four noble truths. What a welcome surprise! I have now read this book several times, reading what drew me, as Phillip suggested. I am now reading the book from cover to cover and shall continue to do so, until I fully comprehend this meaningful teaching. If you are like myself and have studied the four noble truths and the eight-fold path, and seek to more deeply live through Buddha's path to liberation, I highly recommend Dancing with Life, or merely follow along with me as I attempt to share this jewel of a teaching in an abbreviated form. The four noble truths are as follows: there is suffering in life; we suffer due to our desires; there is freedom from suffering; and there is a path to end all suffering by following the eight-fold path, which includes panna, the wisdom practices, right view and right intention, sila, the virtue practices, with right speech, right action and right livelihood, and samadhi or concentration practices with right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration or meditation. There are three insights that are associated with each of the four noble truths, notes the author in his introduction to Dancing with Life, and they follow a similar pattern. First, reflecting upon the truth, then directly experiencing the truth, and, finally, knowing that you know the noble truth. The Buddha taught that in order to completely understand a Noble Truth, you first must reflect upon it; you must examine the truth for yourself, to not only intellectually understand it, but to feel that it makes sense to you. Not until you have done this do you move to the second insight, whereby you consciously seek to realize the truth by immersing yourself in it, through a direct experience in your body, whereby you feel both the beauty and the beast of the truth. This direct experience is what makes the Budhha's teaching a living wisdom versus a philosophy, according to Phillip. Finally, having carefully thought about the Noble Truth, and having directly experienced it, now you are ready for the third insight: the knowing. Or, as Ajahn Sumedho refers to it, the call,"to know that you know the truth," which requires mindfully absorbing the truth into your daily life and living through it. One does this with each of the Noble Truths, for a total of 12 insights: first by reflecting upon it, then directly experiencing it, and finally knowing that you know the truth. Phillip shares his understanding of the Four Noble Truths and the 12 insights with a rare depth of understanding, humour, and sensitivity. Through his own personal journey and through his clients’ journeys, Phillip skillfully supports us in our own understanding, to embody and to live through the Noble Truths as a way of life. May we be happy, may we be peaceful, may we be free of suffering. OM.