Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"

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  2. Four Noble Questions
     … But as I kept saying to the students all along, this approach is based on the four noble truths. It’s nothing particularly Western. It’s very Buddhist. What makes the four noble truths special as a problem-solving approach is that they focus on the big problem in life: the unnecessary suffering we cause ourselves. This mean that, in focusing on these truths … 
  3. The Not-Self Discourse
    Five days ago, we celebrated the Buddha’s first sermon—Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion—where he taught the four noble truths in the context of the noble eightfold path. He taught the duties with regard to those truths, and how completing those duties constituted his awakening. The result of that talk was that the leader of the five brethren, Kondañña—who … 
  4. Noble & True
     … That’s what the Buddha says in the four noble truths. When you look at the four noble truths it’s important to note that they’re truths in at least two different senses of the word. In one sense they’re true statements about facts, and in the other sense they’re the actual facts themselves. The description of craving is one thing … 
  5. Brahmaviharas on the Path
     … It was organized around the four noble truths, but then at the very end, as a kind of afterthought, it tacked on a chapter on the brahmaviharas. There was never any sense that the four noble truths and the brahmaviharas were in any way connected to each other at all. The brahmaviharas were just part of the Buddha’s social philosophy. The way the … 
  6. The Truth of Transcendence
     … And part of the path is understanding the four noble truths and learning how to use them. That much is true, but it’s not the end. We want to learn how to see things in terms of the four noble truths so that we can apply the duties and master the skills. Now, this is a very special way of seeing things. It … 
  7. The Noble Truths Come First
     … All of what we’re doing here falls under the four noble truths. We see that there’s suffering and that its cause is in the mind. And the solution has to lie in the mind as well. It’s always important to remember that the four noble truths form the framework for right view, in other words, the right understanding about what we … 
  8. In Terms of the Four Noble Truths
     … And appropriate attention essentially comes down to seeing things in terms of the four noble truths. And the truths here are not issues of just saying, “Well, there is suffering, there is the cause, there is cessation, there is a path.” It’s expressed in this way: “ This is suffering.” In other words, you look directly at what suffering is or what stress is … 
  9. The Power of the Mind
     … So when the Buddha put this together—the principle of cause and effect, and the fact that causes could be either producing desirable things or undesirable things—that yielded the four noble truths. Craving is the cause of something undesirable, which is suffering, whereas the noble path leads to the dispassion that puts an end to suffering. So the four noble truths are an … 
  10. In Context
     … He did say that the four noble truths were categorical—in other words, true and beneficial across the board, everywhere, always. The implication there is that those are the basic truths that should form the context. Then the question with regard to those three perceptions is: Where do they fit in with the four noble truths? The answer is they fit in with the … 
  11. In the Present
     … one, the four noble truths, and two, the four establishings of mindfulness. Those go together. The four noble truths have their duties, and establishing mindfulness means using your powers of mindfulness to remember those duties and to carry them through as you stay here with the breath, as you maintain this awareness of the present moment. There’s no conflict between the two teachings … 
  12. The Four Noble Truths
     … The wheel there was the passage where the Buddha talked about each of the four noble truths and about the knowledge he gained about the four noble truths in the course of his awakening. If you notice, there were three steps of knowledge for each truth. First there was the knowledge of the truth; then the knowledge of what you have to do, your … 
  13. The Graduated Discourse
     … One of the ironies of how Buddhism has come to the West is that if you’re introduced to Buddhism in college, taking a course either in Buddhism itself or in comparative religion, often the first teaching they tell you is the four noble truths. Whereas, when the Buddha was teaching the four noble truths, he was very careful about how he would introduce … 
  14. Rooted in Desire
     … And I was struck by how many times the authors, when explaining right view, would make a brief mention of the four noble truths and then shift almost immediately to the three characteristics, saying that the four noble truths are true because things are impermanent, unsatisfactory, not-self. That’s the reality out there, and we suffer because we cling to things that change … 
  15. Alighting on the Dhamma
     … Notice, we’re thinking in terms of the four noble truths. Some people define right view as the three characteristics, but the Buddha never does that. The three characteristics, or the three perceptions, have their place within the four noble truths as you apply them to help comprehend suffering or abandon the cause. But the underlying framework you’ve always got to always keep … 
  16. Asalha Puja
     … In his first sutta, though, the Buddha actually talks about only one of the other factors, which is right view, and he defines it in terms of the four noble truths. The first truth is the truth of suffering. It’s not that life is suffering, or that there is suffering. Suffering is clinging. That truth points inside. The five brethren who were listening … 
  17. Dreams & Voices
     … For the basic pattern, think of the four noble truths. How do these things fit in with the four noble truths? Take the four noble truths as your standard. Think about the Buddha’s teachings on appropriate attention. All those questions he said that are not worth answering, or even asking, about the future, about the past, about your existence or non-existence here … 
  18. Against the Grain
     … When the Buddha set out the four noble truths, one of the things he was saying was that it doesn’t have to be that way. The fact that there is the stress, the suffering, the pain, the anguish: These things have causes, and the causes can be overcome. There’s a way to practice so that you can put an end to those … 
  19. Approaching the four noble truths
    For many of us, the first thing we learn about Buddhism is the four noble truths. What’s ironic is that the Buddha usually wouldn’t start with the four noble truths, especially when he was teaching laypeople. He’d first give an introduction called the graduated discourse. In many cases, after hearing the discourse, his listeners were ready for the four noble truths … 
  20. The Beginnings of Wisdom
     … So the three perceptions find their role within the context of the four noble truths. In the same way, the perception of inconstancy finds its role within the context of our desire for long-term happiness. That desire is something the Buddha takes for granted. He says we all start with suffering. When we suffer, we search for somebody who knows s way out … 
  21. Not-self in Context
     … He always says he awoke to the four noble truths. So the answer has to be that he taught not-self because of the four noble truths, and the question to figure out is where not-self fits into those truths. It fits under the fact that he saw in the first noble truth that suffering is clinging, and there are four kinds of … 
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