Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
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- A Radiant Practice… The basic principle of merit operates on the same principle as the four noble truths. In other words, the suffering that weighs down the mind is the suffering that we create for ourselves. The happiness that most uplifts the mind is the goodness we do. That’s merit. You’re looking for happiness in a way that causes no suffering to anyone at all …
- More Wisdom for Dummies… Then a more refined version of that duty comes in relation to the four noble truths. Each of those truths has a duty. The duty with regard to suffering and stress is to comprehend it. For the cause of suffering, the duty is to abandon it. The cessation of suffering is something you should realize. And the path to that cessation is something you …
- Keeping Your Head… The duties that he gave in the four noble truths are for people who, of their own accord, want to put an end to suffering, who see that their untrained mind is causing trouble for themselves and for other people. They see that this is the area where they have real responsibility as well as the ability to make a difference. You do have …
- Using Right View Rightly… It comes in the terms of the four noble truths, which are not expressed in terms of beings or worlds. Simply, “This is suffering, and this is the cause of suffering. This is the activity that leads to suffering, and this is the activity that leads to the end of suffering.” They get identified, and then you can look at your experience in those …
- Only One Person… that if you’re doing something that’s not getting good results, you turn around and look very carefully at what you’re doing to see what you can change. The four noble truths are also teachings on karma. They give you a set of categories that tell you what to do in any given circumstance. When you’re dealing with suffering, the duty …
- From Compunction to Release… to run into the unfabricated. But again, the Buddha never taught that. There are actions that are worth developing and actions that are worth abandoning. That’s a value judgment. The four noble truths are a value judgment. You act on craving, there’s going to be suffering, so craving is something you should abandon. If you act on the noble eightfold path, you …
- To Sustain Your Practice… Where are we blind? What can we do to put an end to that blindness? Those questions are in line with the four noble truths. Then there are the perceptions you hold in mind. The world again would have us hold in mind certain perceptions—that success in life means getting ahead, getting a lot of money, getting status—but the Buddha called these …
- The Problem of Suffering… The teachings on the four noble truths, all the various ways of expressing the path, relate to what you’re doing right now. The important thing is what you’re doing. You pick up the Buddha’s teachings as they become necessary, as they become useful. But the first thing is to get the mind to settle down. As the Buddha once said, right …
- In Touch with Your Fabrications… When you realize that something even as basic as physical pain is a construct, that you don’t have to construct that way, then you can start asking yourself about your emotional pains. “Do I have to construct them in this way? If it’s causing me to suffer, why am I putting this together like this?” The whole message of the four noble …
- A Clear, Calm Lake… When you develop that principle even further, it turns into the four noble truths and their duties, as we chanted just now. Stress is to be comprehended. Its cause is to be abandoned. Its cessation is to be realized, and the path to cessation is to be developed. How do you do that? You develop qualities of ardency, alertness, and mindfulness. These things will …
- Wisdom for Dummies… The distinction between skillful and unskillful forms the basis for the four noble truths. When you dig deep down into why people suffer, you find that it’s because of craving. How can people stop suffering? By developing the path, which is primarily composed of good qualities of mind. So you realize the mind has to be trained. That’s another basic principle of …
- Mindfulness: Get with the Program… You can begin to see them from the perspective of the four noble truths. Where, in a particular mind-state, is there craving? Where is there clinging? Then you remember: What do you do with craving? What do you do with clinging? You try to abandon craving. You try to comprehend clinging. You remember these things because you’re close to your landmark. This …
- Potentials for Rapture… Appropriate attention basically means seeing things in terms of the four noble truths. You can ask yourself, “Where is the pain?” Or you can ask yourself, “What’s the path right now? What can you do to develop the path?” To be able to focus usefully on the pain requires that you have a sense of well-being, a sense of being here in …
- The Language of the Heart (2)… is why it happens. This is how I can put an end to it.” And part of putting an end to it requires that you understand it in those terms. The four noble truths, the factors of dependent co-arising: These teachings may seem foreign at first, but that’s an indication of how alienated we are from our own minds or from understanding …
- Selfing & Not-selfing… We’re talking about the duties of the four noble truths, and there is the duty of realizing unbinding, but once you’ve realized it, there’s nothing more you have to do with it. It’s there. It’s outside of the four noble truths. There are no duties with regard to it. But to get to that point, you have to learn …
- Dispassion & Delight… We have to remember that when the Buddha introduced the idea of these three perceptions, it was to people who, one, had already gained stream entry, and two, had learned the four noble truths along with the duties appropriate to those noble truths. It’s the noble truths, along with their duties, that provide the context for these perceptions. A lot of the duties …
- The Bright Tunnel… When the Buddha talks about the four Noble Truths, he says our duty with regard to suffering is to comprehend it. Comprehending means understanding to the point where you can let go. When you see that the suffering isn’t necessary, that the mind itself is what’s creating the causes, then you stop naturally. As long as you feel that you’ve got …
- Mundane Right View… Most of us, when we first hear about the Buddha’s teachings, learn the transcendent level of right view, which is the four noble truths, about suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. We tend to skip over the mundane level of right view. But that mundane level forms the basis for understanding the transcendent. As with any kind of …
- Endurance Through Discernment… Because this relates to the Buddha’s explanation in the four noble truths. When he explains the noble truth of suffering, he starts out with things we ordinarily relate to suffering: aging, illness, and death, separation from the things we like, having to stay with things we don’t like, not getting what we want. But then he points out the common denominator in …
- Fear & Insecurity… Back in the fifties, when social scientists were sent over to Thailand to figure out how to use Buddhism to help protect Thailand from the Communists, many of them went over having read something about the four noble truths. They came to the conclusion that Buddhism was all about suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, and it seemed pessimistic to their eyes. But when they went …
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