Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"

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  2. The Buddha’s Questions
     … In this case, it turned out to be ignorance of what he later taught as the four noble truths: suffering, its origination, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. What was he to do with those truths? He realized that there were duties that you had to fulfill with regard to them. Again: “What’s the most skillful use of this knowledge?” That … 
  3. Experimental Intelligence
     … The larger context is formed by the four noble truths: the fact that there is suffering, that there’s a cause for suffering, that suffering can cease, and that there’s a path of practice leading to its cessation. These truths in turn relate to a more basic issue: that the whole purpose of the Buddha’s teachings is for the sake of finding … 
  4. Allowing the Breath to Spread
     … That’s stress in the four noble truths, which is based on craving. Because of the craving, you have your perceptions of your feelings that are based on craving, you have thought-constructs about your feelings that are based on a craving, even the ways you breathe are based on craving. Those are going to make the pain even worse. So remind yourself that … 
  5. Shoulds & Ideals
     … And where do the shoulds come from? From the Buddha’s teachings of the four noble truths, as in that chant we had just now: understanding suffering, what’s causing suffering, the end of suffering, and the way to the end of suffering. This is where his shoulds come from, because each of these four truths has a duty. Suffering is to be comprehended … 
  6. The Tools of the Path
     … He’d seen the truth of the four noble truths. In other words, he’d actually had a taste of the cessation of suffering, but even then he said, “I don’t really know the entirety of the Buddha’s views, or the entirety of the views of the awakened monks.” So think of right view as the Buddha’s directions to us specifically … 
  7. A Good Foundation
    One of the messages of the four noble truths is that you’ve been making some pretty big mistakes. Everything you do, say, think, is for the purpose of happiness, pleasure, and well-being, yet so much of it actually leads to suffering. When you learn how to admit that fact, then you’re ready to grow in the Dhamma. But it means that … 
  8. An Apprenticeship in Integrity
     … When the Buddha was talking about the four noble truths, he wasn’t just telling us information about the four noble truths. He was asserting a value, that this is the most important way of looking at things to help attain the most important goal you can set for yourself: putting an end to suffering. So to understand him, you have to understand not … 
  9. An Auspicious Night
     … What are your duties? The duties of the four noble truths: Suffering is to be comprehended; craving—its cause—is to be abandoned; its cessation is to be realized; and the path of that cessation is to be developed. So, there’s work to do, especially in the abandoning and the developing. As the Buddha says twice in the poem, you have to be … 
  10. Admirable Intentions
     … All of the four noble truths have their duties: *Dukkha—*suffering, stress, pain—is to be comprehended. Its cause is to be abandoned. Its cessation is to be realized. And the path to that cessation is something you develop. You don’t simply watch the mind as it gathers and then falls apart, and say, “Oh, I’ve learned something about inconstancy.” If the … 
  11. Mindfulness the Gatekeeper
     … The duties here are the duties for the four noble truths. These are duties for the sake of your well-being. The first duty, with the first noble truth, is to comprehend suffering. Now “comprehending” here means understanding suffering to the point of dispassion. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t think that we’re passionate for our suffering, but as the Buddha said, suffering isn’t … 
  12. Strength of Persistence
    One of the lessons of the four noble truths is that we suffer largely because of the way we talk to ourselves, and we can learn not to suffer by learning to talk to ourselves in new ways. This point applies especially to the question of right effort or persistence. You look at what’s required by the path, and if all you can … 
  13. The Dhamma Wheel in the Heart
     … We hear a lot about the four noble truths, but not so much about the duties. But the reason we have four noble truths is because there are four duties. Now, the Buddha’s not imposing these duties on us. He’s not a god who comes down and says, “You’ve got to do this.” He’s just saying, “If you want to … 
  14. Free Not to Suffer
     … He gives us the four noble truths to explain that we can put an end to suffering, because the suffering’s something we’re doing right now. There’s the suffering in what are called the three characteristics, which basically consists of the fact that things change, the change comes about because they’re conditioned, and the conditions are unstable. So, there’s a … 
  15. Criticism
    The basic premise of the four noble truths is that we’re suffering because we’re doing something wrong. But we can learn, we can do it right. We learn from people who’ve learned how to do it right themselves—which is one of the reasons why criticism is such an important part of the training, because sometimes you can’t see your … 
  16. Make Yourself Small
     … But notice that the Buddha didn’t go straight from that knowledge to focusing on the four noble truths in the present moment. He went through a second knowledge, which was to ask the question: “Is this just me who gets reborn like this? How about other beings? And what’s the pattern underlying all this?” And he had that vision of the whole … 
  17. Giving to the Meditation
     … When he was going to teach people about the Four Noble Truths he would start out by talking about giving and then work his way up from there. When you think about giving, you realize it’s what you’re bringing into any particular situation. If it’s a relationship with another person, what you give that other person—that’s what you bring … 
  18. Audacious & Undaunted
     … That’s how concentration leads to discernment, as your actions come more and more in line with the duties of the four noble truths. The Buddha said completing those duties was what brought about his awakening. In other words, he saw the regularity of the Dhamma, and then beyond that is something called nibbana, or unbinding. That’s the dimension where there is no … 
  19. Feeding on Right Resolve
     … It’s the same when you understand the four noble truths: The wisdom lies in seeing what should be done with those four noble truths. If something qualifies as suffering, you don’t just sit and look at it. You try to comprehend it: “What exactly is this? Where is it coming from? Where is it going?” With craving, you don’t say, “Okay … 
  20. Rebirth is Relevant
     … They wonder how it could be relevant to the four noble truths and the end of suffering, so they put it aside as something they can safely ignore. But it’s actually extremely relevant. For one thing, rebirth wasn’t universally accepted in the Buddha’s time. It was a hot issue. Some people thought that there was rebirth; other people thought that there … 
  21. Attention to Your Potentials
     … Sometimes people ask, “Where’s the wheel?” It’s in the part where the Buddha goes through the four noble truths and points out the three levels of knowledge for each. The first level is knowing the truth. The second is knowing the duty with regard to the truth. And then the third is knowing that the duty has been completed. Four truths, three … 
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