Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
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- Four Noble Truths to One… But we can’t get there without the four noble truths first, because we have a problem—the problem of suffering—along with the bewilderment that goes along with suffering together with a search for a way out. To solve that problem, you have to divide reality into four categories: There’s the cause of the problem, and then the problem itself. Then there …
- Duties… It’s one of the duties associated with the four noble truths. You develop the path so that you can comprehend suffering, and find out where the cause is from. And you’ll find that the cause is coming from your desires. All these duties are duties because of our desires. So you abandon the desire, and then the mind is free from having …
- Balancing Effort & Patience… seeing things in terms of the four noble truths, which are not particularly beliefs, but are categories for sorting out your experiences. Which experiences are suffering? Which experiences are the cause of suffering? Usually we have these things all mixed up. Which things you do are the path? Which things you do are the cause of suffering? They’re not just passive experiences, because …
- Free from Buddha Nature… ignorance of the four noble truths and the tasks appropriate for the four noble truths. When you’re ignorant of those tasks, you start doing unskillful things. With ignorance as a condition, there are fabrications. In fact, what you think you are is something you fabricate. Sometimes you’re doing the fabrication right here and now. Sometimes it’s the result of past fabrications …
- Commit & Reflect… And he realized, by looking at the present moment in terms of the four noble truths, he could go beyond being reborn. The implication here is that you want to focus not only on the present moment but also on developing skillful qualities in the present moment, because that’s what the four noble truths are all about. You see that you’re suffering …
- Faith in the Buddha… This is where conviction moves from mundane right view into transcendent right view, i.e., right view in terms of the four noble truths. What the Buddha said about suffering is in many ways counterintuitive. Suffering is clinging. And the word for clinging in Pali, upadana, can also mean taking sustenance, i.e., feeding. And for most of us, we get so much pleasure …
- Shoulds & Desires… They’re the four noble truths with their duties. These are the things you should do if you want to be happy: You should try to comprehend suffering. You should try to abandon its cause. You should try to realize the cessation of suffering. And you do that by developing the path. All that activity you should and should not do is also about …
- The Fourth Noble Truth… Now, those questions actually fall under the terms of the four noble truths. Where’s the stress? What’s causing it? What can be done to put an end to it? So you step back a little bit to watch the mind and apply the questions of the four noble truths to your concentration. It’s at this point—where you’re looking not …
- Guiding Truths… Then break them down into the terms of the four noble truths. Because the four noble truths are so basic and well known, we forget how radical they are. But if you learn how to use them in a radical way, they can really show their power. They’re like a universal solvent that can dissolve every other issue in the mind. They keep …
- The Brightness of Life… That’s what the four noble truths are all about. This is why we’re practicing concentration: to get the mind in shape so that it can master those solutions in the full conviction that, as Ajaan Fuang says, we can find the brightness of life. That was his comment about what he owed to Ajaan Lee. He said it was because of Ajaan …
- Look at Yourself… This is what the four noble truths are all about. The cause of suffering is craving. Whose craving? Yours. The cause of suffering is ignorance. Whose ignorance? Your ignorance. So you have to remember—not only while you’re sitting here and meditating, but also as you go through the day—that you want to watch the state of your heart. Sometimes it’ll …
- Skill… That’s where the question of skill and lack of skill begins to turn into the four noble truths. There are some actions you do that will lead to stress and suffering; other actions will lead to the end of suffering. Those are the basic terms of the four noble truths right there. That’s what you keep in mind as you’re practicing …
- The Perception of Inconstancy… Take it in the context of the four noble truths. That will assign a duty to whatever comes up. If you encounter any clinging, you realize that has to be comprehended, because you’re going to be clinging to things that change. When you cling to things that change, you want them to be a certain way—but then they change into something else …
- Is the Buddha’s Wisdom Selfish?Wisdom begins, the Buddha said, with the questions, “What when I do it will lead to my long-term harm and suffering? What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” And wisdom finds its highest expression in the four noble truths, which are also concerned with suffering. You might ask, “This focus on your happiness and your suffering …
- The Buddha’s Letter… The other categorical teaching was the four noble truths. Where does suffering come from? It comes from within the mind. It’s an action in the mind that leads to suffering. So again, the dangers from outside are not nearly as bad as the dangers coming from inside. You’re the one who’s causing yourself to suffer. I’ve been reading several people …
- Equanimity After Victory… That’s what the four noble truths are all about. If you think of the three characteristics as being the Buddha’s most important teachings, they do tend to point you toward equanimity, in the sense that “Well, I’ve just got to accept that things are inconstant, stressful and not-self. I can’t get a permanent happiness, so I’ve got to …
- The Flow of Time… This is why he taught the four noble truths. They’re noble because they always apply. The nature of suffering is always the same. The cause of suffering is always the same. The path to the end of suffering is always the same. And what it means to put a cessation to suffering: That’s always the same. These truths are timeless. They allow …
- Firm in Your Intent… You’re trying to look to see what the mind is doing that’s causing suffering, which is why you have to stick with the duties of the four noble truths. Wherever you recognize the clinging you’re engaging in, you try to comprehend it. Exactly how is the act of clinging the same thing as suffering? As for the craving that gives rise …
- Fire… When he talks about the four noble truths and the duties that are appropriate for the four noble truths, this is a way of approaching any problem. No matter what your culture, no matter where you’re from, you look for where there’s stress and you look for what you’re doing to cause the stress. Then you try to abandon the cause …
- True for What Purpose?… When the Buddha taught the four noble truths, it was as if he was teaching the grammar for the practice. They’re not just four interesting facts that you file away in your vast library of facts. They’re meant to structure everything you think about: how you organize your library. He’s pointing out that the problem of suffering is the big problem …
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