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