Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. At the Door of the Cage
     … Several years back I was leading a day-long discussion on the four noble truths. When we got to the third noble truth, the cessation of suffering, the passages we were discussing contained descriptions of nibbana, and the general consensus in the group was that they didn’t like the sound of it. It seemed too alien, too foreign to be really appealing. Then … 
  14. The Wisdom of Dualities
     … This is why the Buddha’s first teaching was the four noble truths. Right view teaches that there are desires leading to suffering and there are the desires that can, when implemented properly, lead to the end of suffering. One course is better than the other. So have some appreciation for dualities. Have some appreciation for the fact that there really is a skillful … 
  15. Goodwill as Right View
     … After all, the four noble truths: What are they but an expression of goodwill? Taking everybody’s suffering as the big issue and showing how we can all put an end to our suffering: Goodwill is what the Buddha depended on to teach, to go out of his way to establish the Dhamma and Vinaya. Ordinarily, a teaching Buddha has only one duty, which … 
  16. Using the Committee of the Mind
     … You try to starve them by pulling out and looking at them with appropriate attention, asking yourself, “What is this? If you were to apply the four noble truths, or the basic distinction between skillful and unskillful, where would this mind state fall?” Would it fall into the causes of suffering? Something unskillful? In cases like that, the duty is to abandon it. Our … 
  17. True Honesty
     … This is why the Buddha’s teachings focus on the four noble truths, because they’re right there in our actions: what we do that causes suffering, what we could do to stop suffering. Recently I’ve been reading some Dhamma talks where the teacher seems to think that the great part of honesty is to be honest about what a miserable meditator he … 
  18. Heedfulness Is Auspicious
     … And then think: “Where does this apply to me right now? And what can I do to get out?” It’s in this context that the Buddha discovered the four noble truths. He realized that the problem was the craving in the mind that led to all these actions that caused suffering, but also that that craving could be ended through the factors of … 
  19. A Complete Training
     … And we’re fortunate that we have the Buddha’s teachings on the four noble truths to remind us that when you let go, it can bring the end of suffering. That way, you’re more willing to let go. This is why the Buddha has you contemplate not only things outside—things that would have pulled you away from your concentration—in terms … 
  20. A True Man of No Rank
     … In terms of our practice, in terms of the four noble truths, we have our duties. And even the things that we do voluntarily—when you look around and see something should be done, and there’s nobody doing it, well, you go ahead and do it. That’s a good trait to have as a practitioner, because your ability to look after your … 
  21. From Anxiety to Confidence
     … Of course, that refers to the duties of the four noble truths. Those are things you can do every day, which means you can do them today. Some people say, “Well, I can do them any day,” and then they put it off to a later day. That’s not the proper attitude. The proper attitude is that today is the day because who … 
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