Now!
Here's one way I might express the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism:
- We find life unsatisfactory.
- The reason we're not satisfied is that we crave satisfaction.
- We can stop craving.
- The way to stop craving is to follow the Eightfold Path (Wise View, Wise Intention, Wise Speech, etc.)
The Eightfold Path is called a path for a reason: it's something that takes time. In that respect, it's like learning to juggle or play the euphonium. You begin, get guidance, practice for some time, and eventually become a children's entertainer 😉
Seriously, though, the Buddha expressed the Eightfold Path as a process whose endpoint is the complete, permanent cessation of craving and therefore suffering. That's no small feat and might well be the work of a lifetime (or lifetimes, if rebirth is your thing). The Path isn't only about the destination, of course. We begin to benefit from Wise Speech from the moment we start practicing it!
I'd like to point out that stopping craving, the third Noble Truth, is also available now. Not the permanent variety, the instant one. In fact, it's been happening now, perhaps haphazardly and occasionally, since you were born.
Consider Ken MacLeod's one-breath meditation:
You are always able to have clear stable attention for one breath, so breathe out, gently and steadily without strain. At the natural end of the exhalation, stop.
Guess what? It's now now.
