Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"

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  2. Asalha Puja
     … 12 spokes that represent the four noble truths multiplied by the three levels of knowledge appropriate to each truth. There’s the truth of stress or suffering—dukkha—the truth of the cause, the truth of the cessation, and the truth of the path of practice leading to cessation. Those are the four truths. In explaining stress, the Buddha gave a list of examples … 
  3. To Strengthen the Path
     … We talk about seeing things in terms of the four noble truths, and it sounds kind of exotic and formal. But it’s actually something very close to what we do a lot of the time with other things that we find are problems. We try to figure out what the problem is and then what’s the cause. And is it possible to … 
  4. An Island in the Flood
     … That’s how, in the third knowledge, he realized that seeing things in terms of the four noble truths and then doing the duties with regard to those truths would lead him out, would lead to the unconditioned. At that point, he didn’t have to do anything more. In other words, the unconditioned isn’t used for the sake of something else. It … 
  5. Frame Your Questions Well
     … And the second was the four noble truths and their duties: the duty to comprehend suffering, the duty to abandon its cause, the duty to realize its cessation, and the duty to develop the path to its cessation. These were the terms that framed, as he said, the ideal questions, because in both cases, we’re talking about actions and results. These are truths … 
  6. Strong-hearted
     … What is discernment based on? The Buddha’s framework for discernment, of course, is the four noble truths. Sometimes you hear it expressed as the three characteristics—seeing things as being inconstant, stressful, not-self—but those the Buddha calls perceptions. And those perceptions have meaning within the context of the framework provided by the four noble truths, which is that you’re trying … 
  7. What to Tolerate, What Not
     … That’s the stress in the four noble truths, and that’s where you can really focus your attention and make a difference. It comes from the activity of the mind. It comes from your ignorance and all the other factors that lead up to craving. That’s something you can do something about. This is one of the basic principles of wisdom: figuring … 
  8. You Are Not a Textbook
     … Be very sensitive to what you’re doing and the results you’re getting from your actions, because as he taught in the four noble truths, some of the things you’re doing now are leading to suffering. There are other things you could be doing that would lead away from suffering. Then he gives you pointers as to what to look for, but … 
  9. Constructing & Deconstructing
     … When you start making distinctions like that, that’s when you can apply the teachings of the four noble truths. Because the different events in the mind do have their different duties, and the four noble truths are there to remind you what the duties are. With the aggregates, your duty is to comprehend them. That means understanding how you cling to them until … 
  10. How to Talk to Yourself
     … The principles of right view are the four noble truths, and the four noble truths have duties: Suffering is something you want to comprehend, its cause is something you want to abandon, its cessation is something you want to realize, and the path is something you want to develop. So when something unskillful comes up in the mind, notice that it’s something to … 
  11. The Questions of Suffering
     … All the four noble truths become clear. And you see why they’re called “right view.” They form the view that’s right for solving that original problem. So when questions come up in your mind, remember that the really important ones are those that relate to this question: What is the suffering? What causes it? What can be done to put an end … 
  12. Mindfulness 2.0
     … What you keep in mind are the duties of the four noble truths. Stress has to be comprehended; its cause has to be abandoned; its cessation has to be realized; and the path to its cessation has to be developed. In many cases, the Buddha emphasizes two of those duties more than the others: the abandoning and the developing. And so here we are … 
  13. One Thing Clear Through
     … Look at the Buddha’s graduated discourse, his analysis of the steps of the path leading up to being ready for the four noble truths. They start with giving. The Buddha talks about the pleasures that come from giving, the happiness, the sense of inner worth that comes from giving. He describes the joy, the sense of self-worth that come when you’re … 
  14. An Inner Revolution
     … You have to think again. “Where is there still some stress here even in this concentration?” Or: “When the mind leaves concentration, when it picks up an object, where is the stress there?” These are the questions that are informed by the four noble truths. Where’s the stress? What’s causing it? What can I do to see it more clearly? What can … 
  15. If These Walls Could Talk
     … Then the question is, how do you do it? How do you recognize when something’s not up to standard? And how do you encourage yourself to bring it up to standard? Remember that the Buddha’s purpose in establishing these standards—the duties of the four noble truths—was compassionate. The whole purpose of the four noble truths is to help you put … 
  16. Ways to Think
     … Transcendent right view focuses on the four noble truths, seeing how even a good rebirth and a good identity are still bound up in suffering. These truths teach you that, instead of thinking in terms of your identity—about who’s doing the action, who’s going to receive the results of the action—you just look purely at action in terms of cause … 
  17. In Search of What’s Skillful
     … The next question that came to his mind was: “What kind of views would take you away from having to be reborn? Is there a kind of view, is there a kind of action that leads to the end of views and the end of actions? That’s how he started looking into the four noble truths, which are a skillful application of the … 
  18. Your Highest Aspiration
     … And what it comes down to, as the Buddha says, is inappropriate attention, not seeing things in terms of the four noble truths. Now, this doesn’t mean just not knowing about the four noble truths. It means not really looking at our experience in terms of those truths, in terms of those categories, and not developing the skills based on those categories. The … 
  19. The Wisdom of Self-regulation
     … The other was the four noble truths: stress, the cause of stress, the cessation of stress, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress. Both of those teachings have built-in imperatives. The first one is obvious: If something skillful comes up in your mind, you want to develop it, to nurture it, to help it to grow. If something unskillful … 
  20. Not What You Are, What You Do
     … That’s the basic principle of the four noble truths. Each of the knowledges in the four noble truths deals with a task that you develop as a skill. That in and of itself is another important statement. If the ignorance at the root of the problem were simply a matter of not knowing your true nature, it would be an all-or-nothing … 
  21. A Meditative Life
     … As for the second level of Right View, the transcendent level, that means seeing things in terms of the four noble truths: stress and suffering, the cause of stress and suffering, the cessation of stress and suffering, and the path of practice to that cessation. Just look at the whole range of your experience: Instead of dividing it up into its usual patterns of … 
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