Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
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- Alertness: What Are You Doing?… This question of “What am I doing right now?” is the question that underlies the four noble truths. You’re doing something right now that’s causing stress. Look for it. When you get to something really big in the meditation—say, a sense of just knowing, knowing, knowing—always keep that question in mind: “What am I doing in the knowing?” If it …
- To Make Suffering Crumble… He started out, not with the three characteristics, but with the four noble truths, basically saying, “Here is the problem: the fact that you’re suffering. We can figure out the cause and we can attack the cause so that there’s no more suffering. And there’s a way to do that.” It’s a very different approach. It’s like a doctor …
- A Mind Like Earth… All too often, people come to the practice, they learn a little bit about mindfulness, they learn a little bit about the four noble truths, and then just plunge right in. They don’t have a foundation, and everything gets skewed. Start with the basics, and one of the basics is to make your mind like earth. Make that the foundation for your practice …
- The Noble Truth about Craving… When the Buddha describes the four noble truths as noble, this is why. They give you a perspective on your craving that lifts you above it, outside of it. It’s only when you get outside of it that you can see it for what it is and what it does. Think of the Buddha on the night of his awakening. First, he had …
- Present-Moment Intelligence… Look at the four noble truths: They’re about actions, either skillful or unskillful. The skillful actions would be following the path; unskillful would be going for the three kinds of craving. Then there are results. That’s what the Buddha wants us to see. Not only that, how can we move from the three kinds of craving to developing the path? It’s …
- Mindfulness over Time… Which messages are worth opening up and listening to? Which messages do you send on? In the four noble truths, the Buddha talks about the duties we have to perform. Those are part of the message that he would recommend. He also recommends frames of reference: the body in and of itself, feelings in and of themselves, mind in and of itself, dhammas in …
- For Your Future’s Sake… What are your duties right now? In terms of the four noble truths, they are: to comprehend suffering or stress, to abandon the cause, to realize cessation through developing the path. Dogen, the Zen master, makes the point that the duties of the last two truths actually come together, that by focusing on developing, in the midst of the developing you’re going to …
- High Level Metta… Think about the four noble truths, where the Buddha says we’re all suffering because of our own craving. Well, you can’t go in and change someone else’s craving. The craving you can work on is your own. So you work on that to be a good example—and to be more secure in yourself, because there are times when metta requires …
- The Treasure Hunt… knowledge of previous lives, knowledge of beings passing away and being reborn in line with their karma, and then knowledge of the four noble truths. Those first two knowledges were not all that certain; there was still an element of possible doubt. Visions of previous lifetimes don’t necessarily mean you actually had previous lifetimes. You can see people passing away and being reborn …
- Craving & Desire on the Path… That second meaning is really important because the four noble truths have duties appropriate to each: Suffering is to be comprehended, its cause is to be abandoned, its cessation is to be realized, and the path to its cessation has to be developed. Each of those duties is going to involve skill. Nobody else can make us skillful. They can point out the way …
- Accepting the Buddha’s Standards… After all, the four noble truths don’t point just to suffering and the cause of suffering. They also point to the path and to the cessation of suffering. Those things can be a part of life, too. Now, a lot of people wouldn’t want to be bothered, but again, that’s their choice, and we should be allowed ours. Ajaan Fuang talks …
- Wisdom & Compassion… If this weren’t the case, the Buddha wouldn’t have focused on the four noble truths as his main teaching. The truths are an understanding of suffering, how to let go of its cause, the path you have to develop in order to let go of that cause, and then the results that come: the end of suffering. If the Buddha weren’t …
- Understanding Aggregates… This is where the teaching on the four noble truths and the three characteristics really goes against the grain. Precisely the places where you find joy, precisely the places where you feel that you’ve got to hold on: *Those *are the places, the Buddha says, you’ve got to watch out for. You’ve got to learn how to peel away the appeal …
- A Light in the Darkness… the questions that surround the four noble truths. Where is there stress? Where is there craving? When is mindfulness present? When is it absent? Can you see these things? When mindfulness is present, how can you keep it going? When it’s absent, how can you give rise to it? These are the questions he has us ask about the present moment. Aside from …
- Safety All Around… basically, seeing things in term of the four noble truths. What’s noble about the truths? They force you to question your clinging and your craving. Otherwise, you’re going to suffer from these things. The Buddha puts a little question mark into your likes and dislikes: The things that you hold on to, the things that you’re feeding on: Do you realize …
- Discerning Actions… the teaching on skillful and unskillful actions, the teaching on the four noble truths. The reason there are four noble truths is because there are four duties with regard to stress. You want to comprehend the stress, to abandon its cause, to realize its cessation, and to develop the path to the cessation. Four different things you’ve got to do: That’s why …
- Life in the Buddha’s Hospital… He starts off with the four noble truths, which are very much like an analysis of how to care for a disease. In his case, he’s offering a cure for the basic disease of the mind: the suffering that comes from craving and ignorance. That’s what we’ve got to cure. So he analyzes the symptoms of the disease, diagnoses it, explains …
- The Primacy of the Mind (2)… After all, with the four noble truths, when the Buddha searches out the causes of suffering, they don’t come from outside—they come from within. It’s because of craving and ignorance that the mind creates suffering for itself. When you look at dependent co-arising, you find the same thing: Almost half of the factors are prior to sensory contact, our knowledge …
- When You Don’t Like Your Selves… Do I want the consequences of this particular kind of action?” Then he has you talk to yourself in terms of the four noble truths. The way you self is a kind of clinging. When is it useful and skillful, and when is it not? Because you do need a sense of self to follow the path—a sense of yourself as competent, that …
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