Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
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- What You Bring to the Moment… You’re learning to explore the process of conditioning, trying to bring appropriate attention to what you’re doing—in other words, seeing it in terms of the four noble truths. You have certain ways of conceiving things that create unnecessary stress, unnecessary suffering, and you can change those preconceived ways. But if you don’t look for them, you are not going to …
- Choiceful Awareness… That’s the basic principle of the four noble truths: Our choices matter. So choose well.
- Just One Person… This is the message of the four noble truths. We’ve been acting in ways that lead to suffering. We’ve got to change the way we act—which means you can’t simply wish for the path to come together. You have to take responsibility. So, Yes, you are doing this and, Yes, you will benefit from it. And you’re the one …
- De-domesticated… What he taught us was just a handful of leaves, i.e., the four noble truths. He saw that the problem, the suffering that we cause ourselves, is the number-one problem. When that problem is solved, everything is solved. But it’s an inner problem. And the work to get beyond suffering is inner work. Now, the fact that you’re focusing in …
- The Making Of… That’s where you begin to see things in terms of the four noble truths—where the Buddha talks about the clinging that *is *suffering, and the craving that goes into the clinging. Ideally, you develop a sense of dispassion, seeing the allure of these thought worlds, but also the drawbacks of just wandering around from one thought world to another to another—like …
- A Meditator’s Environment… You might say the four noble truths are all about figuring out which desires are worth following and which ones are not, gaining a strong sense of what’s skillful, what’s not. When you’re suffering, learn where to look, both to understand the suffering itself—to comprehend it—and to find out what the cause might be right now. We don’t …
- You Are Not Redundant… That’s what the four noble truths are all about. You wonder what the Buddha would think about teachings that are said in his name nowadays: that you don’t do the practice; that there’s no “you” there to do the practice, it’s just conditions happening. That sort of thinking defeats any sense of your worth as a person, or of the …
- Older than the Cosmos… Knowledge in terms of the four noble truths, which finally cuts through the craving, doesn’t come until the path has been fully developed. But right view as a beginning factor gives you some direction. So when your views are in line with right view, remind yourself: That’s when you’re beginning to see clearly. That’s when you’re beginning to point …
- Skilled in Aims… Then, of course, with the four noble truths, the fact that you’re trying to put an end to suffering shows that you have goodwill for yourself. The way you do it is through the noble eightfold path, and that involves right view, right resolve, all the way down through right concentration, including right speech and right action—again, virtue. You’re acting in …
- Concentration as a Skill… This was how the Buddha discovered the four noble truths, realizing that clinging is what’s creating a burden for the mind. If his mind hadn’t been in concentration, he wouldn’t have been able to see that, because when we cling to things usually we’re not paying attention to the act of clinging. We’re paying attention to the things we …
- The Steadiness of Your Gaze… Why is the mind causing itself suffering? Why is it causing itself stress in ways that don’t have to be there? In the context of the Three Characteristics, the Buddha does point out that anything fabricated is stressful, but in the Four Noble Truths he focuses more on the issue of the stress of clinging and craving. The craving causes the clinging, and …
- To Depend on Yourself… He wants you to learn how to put an end to your own suffering, and if you realize that that’s probably the best thing you could ask from anybody, then you take on the duties that he talks about in terms of the four noble truths. Try to understand or comprehend what exactly you’re suffering from. Try to find the cause so …
- Taking Charge… When the Buddha talks about duties, the only duties he really describes as universal are the duties appropriate to the Four Noble Truths. He doesn’t impose them on you, but once you’ve decided that you want to put an end to suffering, you’ve taken on those duties yourself. You want to comprehend the suffering and abandon its cause. So wherever you …
- The Mind’s Ostinato… This is why Ajaan Mun says that nibbāna lies outside of the four noble truths. Some people will say **nibbāna is the third noble truth. The Buddha defines the third truth as the realization of nibbāna, but after realization, nibbāna itself has no duties. The realization, of course, is to be realized, but nibbāna itself has no duties, no activities at all. It was …
- Cause & Effect Right Now… You develop the four noble truths to the point where, as Ajaan Mun says, they all become one. In other words, there’s just one duty: Everything gets let go. But that can happen only when you’ve been working on developing the path all the way. And where do you do that? You do it right here, right now, so that you can …
- Great Expectations… This is why when the Buddha announced the four noble truths—that it is possible to put an end to suffering by putting an end to the cause, which is craving, and that there’s a true happiness that comes about as a result—the texts tell us that there was an earthquake. That possibility shakes everything up. This possibility is the reason why …
- Expanded Possibilities… After all, the four noble truths are four truths. It’s not just suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering. Four separate truths, and there is that truth of the end of suffering. And the path, even though it takes a lot of work, is worth every bit of it. So as we face a world that’s been changed by this virus, in which a lot …
- The Center of Your Life… So whatever the situation, you can ask yourself, “What’s going on here? Which of the four noble truths am I dealing with right now?” If there’s stress, if you can identify the stress, then try to comprehend it. If you see a mental state that’s giving rise to stress, particularly craving or clinging, do what you can to abandon it, let …
- Choosing & Watching Your Choices… It’s related to the duties of the four noble truths. With the cause of suffering, you want to abandon it. And the cessation of suffering, when you actually do put an end to suffering, is when you see the abandoning of craving, which is the cause of suffering. So that’s a double duty right there. There’s the abandoning and seeing the …
- Asking the Right Questions… What are you doing when the stress goes up? What are you doing when the stress goes down? That’s actually applying the four noble truths. In other words, there’s a rise in the stress: What are you doing? What’s the cause? When the stress happens to go away, what did you do? What’s the cause there? You don’t have …
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