Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
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- 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 …
- 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 …
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