Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
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- The Story behind Impatience… What I have brought out to teach is like the leaves in my hand.” And he focused on the four noble truths as being the leaves in his hand. There are other passages where he boiled down the basic insight he gained in his Awakening even further: It’s a simple principle of causality. When you think of all the amazing things he could …
- Cheerfully Ardent… After all, you want to understand the four noble truths. You want to comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, and you have to figure out what’s the link between the two. How do you do that? Through trial and error, and then trial and error again. Eventually you get to trial and success. Take it for granted that you’ll miss the mark the …
- Work & Play… I am responsible for that.” After all, that’s one of the lessons of the four noble truths: that the suffering that weighs down the mind is not just the pain in the body. It’s not the things that come at you. It’s how you handle those things, based on your own ignorance, your own attachment, your own clinging and craving—something …
- Turning Points… That led him finally to his third knowledge, which was looking at his intentions in the present moment, to see which intentions caused stress and suffering: “Can you see them in action right now? Can you see their effects right now? How about if you stop them?” This is where he arrived at the four noble truths. He realized not only what the truths …
- Hedgehog Knowledge… How can you make it still? Once it’s still, how can you keep it there? And as you keep it there, you ask, “Is there still something gross in here? Where’s the more refined sensation in this?” That’s the beginning of the four noble truths right there. You’ll begin to look for where stress is. At this point it’s …
- Broaden Your Range of Choices… When the Buddha would start out his teachings, well before he’d talk about the four noble truths, the very first thing he talked about was generosity. He had a strong etiquette around that. He wouldn’t talk about generosity in hopes of making people generous. The reason why generosity has gotten such a bad name in a lot of American Buddhist circles is …
- Inconstancy… You still have those four duties with regard to the four noble truths. The path is to be developed. Suffering is to be comprehended. The causes of suffering are to be abandoned, so that the cessation of suffering can be realized. So for the time being, you use the principle of inconstancy to figure out what are the causes for the path, and how …
- Sense Pleasures & Sensuality… When the Buddha was giving his graduated discourse—the step-by-step discourse to get people ready for the four noble truths—that would be the turning point. He would start with a talk on generosity, a talk on virtue, a talk on heaven. Heaven, of course, would be a description of the pleasures you could experience up there based on the fact that …
- The Wisdom of Merit… These provided the foundation for working up eventually to an understanding of the four noble truths. And so it’s good to look back and see what’s distinctive about giving from his point of view. And particularly at why the practice of generosity and virtue and merit in general are an important foundation for practicing meditation—particularly the teachings on merit. A lot …
- The Science of Meditation… It’s all about the four noble truths. You’re looking for the stress, trying to comprehend it, until you can understand the cause. When you see the cause, you abandon it. The causal connection is what’s important there. Similarly with the path: The path doesn’t cause the end of suffering but it takes you there. The image of the path is …
- Remember This… This way, mindfulness practice fits ultimately into the four noble truths. Each truth has a duty. When something comes up, is it part of the truth of stress? Okay, remember: What do you do with stress? You try to comprehend it. You try to see where the clinging is—which particular aggregate you’re clinging to—and then you learn how to depersonalize these …
- A Slave to Craving… What brings these observations under the four noble truths is the fourth Dhamma summary: We’re a slave to craving. We don’t have enough. We live through this life with all its setbacks and problems, yet we keep coming back. And depending on how we’ve handled the setbacks, sometimes we come back in a better situation, sometimes we come back worse—and …
- Everything You Need… You look at the present moment and you apply the four noble truths to every present moment that comes. What can you develop right now that will be in line with the path? The potentials are there. Everything you need is right here. Just make sure you don’t choose the wrong path. And even though in the very beginning there’s a lot …
- Perplexity… Appropriate attention is basically the seeing things in terms of the four noble truths and figuring out what the duty is in regard to them. When stress or suffering comes, that’s to be comprehended. You’ve got to look and see: What is actually the suffering there in the mind? You have to ferret it out. As the Buddha said, it’s something …
- Delight… So instead, you think in terms of the four noble truths: simply what is suffering, what is the cause of suffering, what is the cessation of suffering, what is the path to the cessation. In other words, you think in terms that have nothing to do with becoming—a self or a world—and that cut through the processes of becoming. And you find …
- You Can Make a Difference… It basically came down to the four noble truths and, as he said, the reason he chose those leaves is because they could help people put an end to suffering. This means that his goodwill was part of his standard for deciding what to teach, what not to teach. So we should accept his teachings in that frame of mind—having gratitude for someone …
- Dependable Friends… After all, as the Buddha said with regard to the four noble truths, suffering is something you want to comprehend, the cause of suffering is something you want to let go or abandon. Cessation is something you want to realize, to verify it for yourself. And then the path to the end of suffering is something you want to develop. So you have to …
- Karma & Gratitude… It’s in this way that reflection on gratitude in the context of karma can bring you right here, doing what you should be doing in terms of the duties of the four noble truths.: duties that are not imposed on you, but when you realize you want to put an end to suffering, you want to put an end to karma, this is …
- Outside the Box… They constantly fall under the truths of the four noble truths. That’s what’s constant about them. Ajaan Lee had his own way—in fact, two different ways—of dealing with the three characteristics. One is that he noticed certain aspects of your body stay the same. Your mouth has never turned into your eye. Your hands have never turned into your feet …
- Honoring the Noble Ones… What intentions, what views now would help put an end to suffering, help put an end to this cycle of birth and death? That’s how he discovered the four noble truths. He followed the duties with regard to those truths and gained awakening. That was the point where he didn’t have to use his awakening for anything further. But up to that …
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