Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"

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  2. Playing by the Buddha’s Rules
     … The second set of rules are the duties of the four noble truths: to comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, realize cessation of suffering, and develop the path to that cessation. These rules and duties are very different from the rules and duties that the world places on you. So as you engage with the world, engage with your family, with people around you, especially … 
  3. Wisdom as a Tool
     … Remember that only the four noble truths are true everywhere, so use wisdom in how you interpret the limits of the insights you’ve gained. Ajaan Mun had another piece of advice, which you can read about in Ajaan Maha Boowa’s account of Ajaan Mun’s passing away. Ajaan Maha Boowa was feeling really abandoned after Ajaan Mun’s death, and then he … 
  4. Right View: Feeding Instructions
     … So an important part of adopting right view is not only learning to look at your experience in terms of the four nobles truths, but also realizing that this is the important problem. It takes precedence over everything else. That may sound selfish, focusing on your own suffering, but look at the people in the world. The fact that we’re making one another … 
  5. The Buddha’s Cost-Benefit Analysis
     … realizing that—given the four noble truths, particularly the truth of how suffering is originated—you want to avoid any thinking that would originate more suffering. So you learn how to step back from your thoughts, step back from your desires, and view them in this context of a cause-and-effect chain—where they come from, where they go—so that you can … 
  6. Perceptions for Training the Mind
     … When you’re doing that, you’re acting in line with the duties of the four noble truths. And, as the Buddha said, when you stay on the path, you’re safe. It’s when you wander away from the path that you get into danger. Here again, he gives an image: people with a cart, and they decide to leave the main road … 
  7. A Sense of Duty
     … In terms of the four noble truths, suffering should be comprehended—in other words, you should see that suffering is in the clinging to the aggregates. That takes a lot of effort to comprehend because we tend to see suffering in other places. But this, the Buddha said, is where the real suffering is. So you want to comprehend that. How do you cling … 
  8. Return of Wisdom for Dummies
    When the Buddha introduced his teachings to people, he very rarely started out with big principles like the four noble truths or the three characteristics. He started out instead with an action that his listeners were familiar with: He’d start out with the act of generosity. And he had an etiquette around that. It wasn’t to get people to be generous. Often … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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