Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"

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  2. Two Kinds of Defilements
     … It was a book on the four noble truths, and I translated that part for Ajaan Suwat. His comment was, “The writer is teaching people to be stupid.” Because the defilements that are brazen: They like that. They’re happy to hear that you’re not going to attack them, that you’re not going to try to dig down. And yet those are … 
  3. Focus on Your Skill
     … This is why the Buddha taught the four noble truths. That’s the framework, and in that framework there’s no mention of who’s suffering or where in the world they’re suffering. They point at something that’s immediately present right here, right now. It’s simply up to us not to slip off from right here, right now—which we do … 
  4. Determination
     … The Buddha compares this with someone who’s able to see the four noble truths. And even though you may not be seeing things obviously in that framework, still when you see things in terms of: What are you doing that’s causing suffering? What can you do to stop that?—That’s when you develop your good eye. One of the other attributes … 
  5. The Language of the Breath
     … In other words, you’re starting to see the motions of your mind in terms of the framework of the four noble truths: cause and effect, skillful and unskillful. As you start evaluating the motions the mind not only as they relate to the breath, but also as they relate to everything else—how they relate to the contact of forms and eyes, sounds … 
  6. Looking Off to the Side
     … Whereas what the Buddha said was that the things we don’t know are the four noble truths. Each of the truths has a duty, and as with any kind of activity, you can develop it more and more skillfully. You can get more skillful at comprehending suffering, more skillful in abandoning its cause, more skillful at developing the path and realizing the cessation … 
  7. Evaluating the Practice
     … This is particularly useful when we get into issues around the four noble truths. The Buddha wants you to step back from your craving. He wants you to step back from your clinging to the aggregates so that you can see, “What is this all about?” The world teaches us to go with our craving. “Obey your thirst,” they tell you. Then, of course … 
  8. A Matter of Life & Death
     … Then there’s stress in the context of the four noble truths, stress that comes from craving and ignorance. When he talks about putting an end to stress, that’s the one you put an end to, because once that’s put an end to, then the mind doesn’t suffer. It can live in a world of inconstancy, stress, not self, but it … 
  9. Skillful Thinking
     … This is what the Buddha was getting at when he said to put thoughts of “me,” “myself,” “what I have been,” “what I will be” aside and to think instead in terms of the four noble truths. These truths give you a way of looking at experience that focuses directly on the issue of skillfulness. In other words, you look at your experience in … 
  10. The Skills of Stillness
     … All of his teachings—the four noble truths, the noble eightfold path—are all aimed right here. It’s like tuning a radio. If the radio is not well tuned, there’s a lot of static and it’s hard to tell what’s being said, what the music is. But once it’s finely tuned, then things come through clearly. So you’re … 
  11. The Governing Principle
     … Your duty with regard to the four noble truths is to comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, realize its cessation, and develop the path. To “develop” means that you give rise to it; and once it’s there, you keep it going. That’s the function of desire and right effort as well: the desire to abandon unskillful qualities, to develop qualities that are skillful … 
  12. Useful Vocabulary
     … And then you can know what to do in terms of the four noble truths. Just having the vocabulary in and of itself, is not enough. It’s not enough to be able to identify that this is a feeling or this is a perception or whatever. But it is a start. The next thing to do is, what do you do with it … 
  13. Fear of Mistakes
     … We take as our standards the duties of the four noble truths: Suffering is to be comprehended. That means that our clinging is to be comprehended. What do we cling to? We cling to our views of the world. We cling to our sensual desires, our sensual fantasies. We cling to our ideas of how things should and should not be done. We cling … 
  14. The Demands of Goodwill
     … There was a book years back, a survey of early Buddhist teachings, that organized everything under the four noble truths and then, at the very end, tacked on the brahmaviharas—as if they were somehow not integral to the practice. The author said they formed the social dimension of Buddhism, whereas everything else was totally devoted to the training of your mind—as if … 
  15. This Fathom-Long Body
     … All aspects of the four noble truths, starting with understanding suffering, stress, and pain, are things you do right here in the body. Understanding the causes of suffering and stress and pain: You can learn them if you keep careful watch over how the mind relates to the body. The path to the end of suffering is this body together with this mind. Use … 
  16. The Power of Attention
     … Remember, appropriate attention means asking these questions related to the four noble truths. Inappropriate attention means you’re asking other questions. Then, when your attention is inappropriate, you start making inappropriate effort—and all the potentials for having the right factors of the path turn wrong. So instruct your act of attention, how you pay attention to things. Realize that you do have the … 
  17. When You’re Discouraged
     … After all, what do the four noble truths tell us? What you’re doing is wrong. Something in what you’re doing is wrong. You’ve got to learn how to stop that and do things more skillfully. What you’re doing is the craving and the clinging. Because you’re used to craving and clinging, the Buddha says, “Here’s something better to … 
  18. Focus on the Precepts
     … You look at things in terms of the four noble truths. You follow the duties appropriate to those four noble truths, one of which is to comprehend suffering. Suffering itself is an action. It’s the act of clinging to the aggregates. The aggregates are actions, too. The Buddha defines them as verbs. Form deforms, feelings feel, perceptions perceive, and so on. Then you … 
  19. The Wisdom of Restraint
     … After all, that’s the basic teaching of the four noble truths. What we’re doing right now is leading to suffering. We can change our ways, act in different ways that can lead to the end of suffering. All the factors of the noble eightfold path are telling you: This is how you change your habits. So we’re not here to be … 
  20. Pull Yourself Up by Your Fetters
     … You’ve got to know the four noble truths from the very beginning to get a sense of what the landscape is and what you’ve got to do. But the other four fetters have their good points. They’re actually useful. You don’t let them go until you’ve gotten some use out of them. For instance, with conceit, the sense that … 
  21. Intro to Breath Meditation
     … This is what the Buddha’s teachings on the four noble truths are all about: the stress and suffering we cause through our craving, through our ignorance. We love ourselves, we want happiness, and yet we cause ourselves suffering. It’s because we’re not watching, we’re not attentive. This is one of the reasons why we want to settle down in the … 
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