Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
- Page 30
- Getting the Most Out of the Present… Of course, the duties here refer to the duties of the four noble truths. To what extent have we yet to comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, realize its cessation, or develop the path? That’s something we have to take stock of, and then figure out what has to be done right now. Right now you’re trying to develop the path. As for …
- The Brahmavihāras Aren’t Enough… You have to contemplate the aggregates that make up your sense of self and understand them in line with the four noble truths, because it is possible to hold build a self-identity even around equanimity. As the Buddha said, it’s one of the highest objects of clinging, but it’s still clinging. There’s another passage where the Buddha talks about a …
- Evaluation… The big message of the four noble truths is that the suffering that weighs down the mind comes from your own actions. This is a message that some people find depressing—it means they have to change. But other people find it liberating—they can change and, if they change, they can make a difference. Those are the ones who are going to benefit …
- Discernment: Commit & Reflect… After all, as the four noble truths point out, the cause of suffering isn’t outside. It’s not in sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations; it’s not in what other people do or don’t do. It’s in what your own mind does or doesn’t do. Yet the mind’s constantly flowing out, paying attention to things outside, and paying …
- The Buddha Aimed High… It’s the kernel of the four noble truths. You solve the problem of suffering not by solving suffering, but by solving the cause. You’ve got to abandon the cause. We want to abandon the suffering, we want to push it away, but it doesn’t work. You’ve got to find the cause. It’s like going into your house and seeing …
- For a Routine That Isn’t Routine… The main framework for the questions is the four noble truths: What are you doing that’s causing unnecessary stress? What could you do to let go of the cause? It’s simply a matter of taking those two questions and learning how to apply them to the particulars of your experience. Each breath is particular; each movement of the mind is particular. They …
- Meditate to Win… They’re part of the actual duties of the four noble truths. Again, the Buddha didn’t make up these duties, either. If you want to put an end to suffering, this is what you’ve got to do, based on the way causality actually works. And these duties, these shoulds, are all formulated for your true happiness. You always have to keep that …
- In Training… take it on as your working hypothesis, you’re going to act in honorable ways that you feel good about—so you take it on. Everything else comes from there. The four noble truths come down basically to what kind of kamma leads to suffering and what kind of kamma leads to the end of suffering. More detailed instructions, like dependent co-arising, place …
- Warm Your Heart… Because remember, the ultimate expression of wisdom in the Buddhist teachings is the four noble truths. We’re not just here to say, “All things are impermanent, suffering, not-self: Let’s just give up on them.” Even though they have those characteristics, still we can create something really of solid worth out of them. We can create this as part of the path …
- So Little Time… When the Buddha taught the four noble truths, they weren’t just four interesting facts about an interesting problem. He said that this is the big issue, the fact that you’re causing yourself suffering but you have the ability to learn how not to. So, given the little time that we have, it’s important that we focus our energy on solving the …
- To Comprehend Craving… We talk about the different duties with regard to the four noble truths, and that the duty with regard to craving is to abandon it, but there’s one passage where Ven. Gavampati says he heard it from the Buddha that you should try to comprehend all four of the noble truths. After all, how are you going to abandon craving until you comprehend …
- Skills Needed at Death… This is why I make that distinction between the suffering of the three characteristics and the suffering of the four noble truths. The fact that things are fabricated means they’re going to be stressful. That’s the nature of fabrications. The stress of inconstancy is something that’s not going to change. What you can change is the stress that comes from craving …
- The Buddha Teaches a Yakkha… The other categorical teaching is the four noble truths and the duties appropriate to them: to comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, realize the cessation of suffering, by developing the path to the cessation. Those are the only teachings that the Buddha said are true across the board. With other teachings, he said, you have to know the proper time and place. So that’s …
- The Third and a Half Noble Truth… He told me that there was one point in his practice when he realized that of the four noble truths, he knew the first, and he knew the second, and he knew the fourth, but he didn’t know the third. So he set about trying to figure out: What is the cessation of suffering? Because he worked on it and he put a …
- Hindrances Based on Delusion… Where’s the stress? What leads to the stress? Where does stress end? And what do you do to make stress end? This takes the issue of skillful and unskillful and turns it into questions around the four noble truths. The only way you’re going to undercut these hindrances is through developing this kind of discernment. So watch over your meditation. See if …
- To Know the Buddha… We’re told sometimes that we can add new dimensions to the teachings of the four noble truths. For example, the Buddha never talked about social systems and the suffering they cause, but maybe we can add that to the tradition by talking about systemic suffering. Well, he obviously saw that there were problems in the social system then, but that wasn’t the …
- The Buddha Meant What He Said… Even before the Buddha taught about the four noble truths, he taught that these truths are part of an eightfold path. It’s a path of action to help you understand action. You’re going to learn something about yourself as you see yourself in action. But the big issue is just that: What are you doing that’s causing stress? And how can …
- Bases for Success… in other words, concentration without any real understanding of the four noble truths, without any real desire to know the difference between what’s skillful and what’s not. You just want the concentration, so you work at the concentration. This is why there is such a thing as wrong concentration: the concentration used in voodoo, for example—that kind of stuff. Or the …
- Learning by Doing… You focus on: “What I am doing right now? And is it causing stress or is it helping alleviate stress?” Those are the questions that go with the four noble truths. And those are the questions of discernment. They help refine your stages of concentration and also help you to see into what the mind is doing. Because after all, what you’ve got …
- First Principles… But the leaves in his hand, which represented the four noble truths, did lead to unbinding. So the Dhamma has its purpose. And to really know what the Dhamma means, you have to know its purpose and experience the benefit that you get from putting it into practice. That’s when you really know. Prior to that time, it’s all just concepts. And …
- Load next page...
