Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
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- Something New… In fact, that’s what the four noble truths are all about. Why are we suffering? We’re suffering because of things we’re doing, but we don’t have to keep on doing the things we’re doing. We can change. We can bring something new into the world. In fact, with every moment, we have that possibility. You can bring something new …
- Solo Practice… And that’s what connects to the four noble truths. You see what the mind does that creates suffering, you see what it does that puts an end to that suffering. That’s the basic pattern. Those are the basic questions. They start from the simple process of learning to be observant of your breath. And then the focus moves inward so that you …
- Mistakes… Even before he would teach people the four noble truths, he taught something called the Graduated Discourse. It starts out with generosity, the joy that comes with generosity and then the long-term benefits. Virtue was the next topic, and again, the joy of being virtuous, of looking at your behavior and seeing that there’s nothing in your behavior that you could criticize …
- The Safety of Dualities… In fact, I was reading just the other day a passage where the author said that when the Buddha was teaching the four noble truths, he was coming from a position of non-duality, which doesn’t make any sense at all. If any number is dual, it’s four: a dual duality. And the truths are four precisely because the Buddha’s trying …
- Bless Yourself… It was all about the four noble truths. And the four noble truths are about what your desires can do. There are desires that can lead to suffering; there are desires that can lead to the end of suffering. The Buddha deals with the problem that you feel within—suffering—but he also says the cause of the problem is also within. And the …
- Why We Bow Down… He never claimed that he could give you a logical proof of nibbāna, for example, or of the four noble truths—even of the principles of mundane right view, that your actions really are yours. In other words, you’re the one who decides what to do. It’s not some outside force acting through you. And they really do have an impact. Your …
- Resisting the Germs of Defilement… Sometimes this quality is equated with seeing things in terms of the four noble truths. And that doesn’t mean just knowing what the four noble truths are, but remembering what they’re for: They’re for dividing up our experience so that we know what to do with it—because each truth has a duty. Suffering, or stress, is to be comprehended. Its …
- Believe in Your Actions… The purpose of that teaching is to inspire you to be ready to listen to the four noble truths, to think about, “What would it be to put an end to the causes of suffering, totally?” As for mundane right resolve, that grows into transcendent right resolve by actually putting the principles of right view into practice, learning how to divide your thoughts into …
- Stress… There’s the stress in the three perceptions, and there’s the stress in the four noble truths. The stress in the three perceptions has to do with the raw material from which you’re trying to create a state of happiness, create a state of well-being, realizing that the raw material is the raw material for that purpose. But it’s like …
- Pleasure & Pain… He started with the four noble truths. What’s the duty with regard to the first noble truth of stress and pain? Our duty is to comprehend it, to understand it, which is very different from the way we normally react to pain. Usually, when pain arises in the body, we do our best to push it away or to will it away. All …
- To Practice Dying… So focus on mastering them well, so that instead of having willy-nilly to place your hopes on craving, you can place your hopes on the skills that come from being mindful, alert, knowledgeable, seeing things in terms of the four noble truths: In other words, you put aside the ignorance, the sole troublemaker that causes all the problems to begin with. As meditators …
- Stick with It… Some people say the four noble truths are very obvious from the very beginning, but they’re not obvious. The idea that there can be a total cessation for suffering, where have you seen that? It’s something you haven’t seen yet. This is where the conviction comes in. Conviction can be based on lots of things, such as the fact that it …
- Bewildered… There’s so much suffering caused by our ideas of what we have to do or what we should do that really have nothing to do with the duties of the four noble truths. Those duties are to comprehend the pain, abandon the cause, realize cessation by developing the path. If you’re intention is to comprehend pain, that changes the dynamic entirely. As …
- Attention & Intention… The other issue is the four noble truths. These two issues are connected in that the four noble truths take the principle of skillful and unskillful action and apply it specifically to the question of why there’s suffering and how you put an end to it. Unskillful actions in this context would equal the second noble truth, the cause of suffering. Skillful actions …
- A Snare of Death Laid Out… Then, before he taught the four noble truths, he had to take you through that step of seeing the drawbacks and degradation of sensuality, to the point where you could say, “Maybe renunciation really is good.” The pleasure of a concentrated mind is not just a second best—it’s actually much better. When you see that, that’s when you’re ready for …
- On Denying Defilement… In terms of the Buddha’s most basic teaching, the four noble truths: When he talks about the fact that the defilement is a matter of action rather than of the innate nature of your mind, this relates to the second noble truth. The fact that defilement is affliction relates to the first noble truth. The luminosity of the mind is that you’re …
- Dichotomies… The other categorical teaching, the four noble truths, is also a dichotomy. On the one hand, you have suffering and the cause of suffering, and on the other hand, you have the path leading to the end of suffering and the actual cessation of suffering. Those things—suffering and not suffering, the cause of suffering and the path to the end of suffering—are …
- Wandering Aimlessly… And exactly what is it that we have to be knowledgeable about? The four noble truths. You may call them the four noble factors for solving the problem: Looking at the suffering and asking, “Where’s the stress right now? What comes along with it? What can you do to put an end to the stress by abandoning its cause?” So watch the movements …
- Abandoning Effluents (2)Luang Pu Dune, one of Ajaan Mun’s most senior disciples, had a famous short explanation of the four noble truths, in which he said that the cause of suffering is the mind flowing out. The path to the end of suffering is the mind knowing the mind. This teaching fits in with what the Buddha taught about asavas, or effluents: the things that …
- The Kamma of Self & Not-Self… You’re looking at them more in terms of the four noble truths. And at this point, as Ajaan Mun says, the four noble truths collapse into one: Whatever arises is stressful, and what do you do with it? You develop dispassion for it and let it go. That’s it. At that point, you’re not even thinking in terms of whether your …
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