Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"
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- 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 …
- Thoughts, Wanted and Unwanted… The reflection on stress and the cause of stress—the teachings of the four noble truths—comes in really handy here. There are types of thinking we like to think but they’re causing a lot of stress in our lives. They’re making it difficult for us to get along with other people, making it difficult for other people to get along with …
- One Point, Two Points, Many Points… What we’re doing is to take the basic causes of suffering and to bring as much awareness to them as possible — specifically awareness in the form of the four noble truths: Where is there stress, what are you doing that’s causing stress, and what can you change to make the stress go away? You start with blatant levels of stress related to …
- Practicing on Your Own… The second was the teachings on the four noble truths: how suffering is caused and where you look for the cause so that you can put an end to the suffering, and what you do to put an end to the suffering. These principles don’t change from time to time. You want to hold to these things, because not only does the culture …
- The Five Hindrances… In other words, we don’t look at them in terms of the four noble truths. We don’t see what suffering they’re causing. We just ride with them. The way to starve them is to develop appropriate attention. Look at these mind states simply as that—as mind states, part of a chain of cause and effect. See where these chains of …
- Persistence: Lift Your Heart… We’re given two sets of views that are categorical—one, that skillful actions should be developed and unskillful ones should be abandoned; and two, the four noble truths together with their duties. If we have conviction in the Buddha's awakening, we believe these really are categorical. The problem is that they’re not truths that just sit there. They have duties associated …
- Establishing Priorities… That’s why one of the duties with regard to the four noble truths is to develop the path, the way out of suffering. This is what we’re doing here right now. So wisdom is largely a matter of priorities. As you’re sitting in meditation, as you go through life, your top priority should be to stay here with the breath so …
- To Delight in the Path… This is one of the reasons why, when the Buddha introduced the four noble truths to laypeople, he would start out with these two topics: taking joy in being generous, taking joy in being virtuous. Or if he was discussing the basis for the acts of merit, acts of goodness, he described three: generosity, virtue, and the development of goodwill. Learn how to take …
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